COVID-19 vaccinations at local government units (LGUs) around the country slowed the past week, with some people losing the sense of urgency in getting booster shots, a Department of Health undersecretary said Saturday.
This was as the DOH logged 941 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, bringing the nationwide tally to 3,666,678. Active cases stood at 49,374, of which 416 are asymptomatic, 44,586 are mild, 2,736 are moderate, 1,344 are severe, and 292 are in critical condition.
The Health Department also said there was no need to mandate COVID-19 booster shots for now, adding there were other ways to campaign for the country’s vaccination drive.
This came after Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion suggested that COVID-19 booster cards be made mandatory at establishments in areas under the loosest Alert Level 1, or in areas where administering the primary series had finished.
Metro Manila and 38 other areas this week deescalated to the lowest of a 5-tier COVID-19 alert system, also considered as the shift to the “new normal,” to revive the pandemic-battered economy.
But Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said at the Laging Handa briefing: “Our vaccinations have slowed down a bit in the past week, we are only reaching a maximum of about 300,000 individuals, compared to the previous one million to 1.5 million individuals. It was difficult to reach other segments of our population.”
Responding to Concepcion’s concerns, Cabotaje said the government should first push for an information drive regarding boosters.
“We know that the number of vaccinations in the past weeks is slow, especially with boosters, for various reasons. While hesitancy had subsided, there was also a loss of urgency over booster shots. Most people were content with having two doses and the ‘no-vaccination, no entry’ policy,” she said.
On the DOH’s part, with the assistance of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and private sector partners, Cabotaje said they would strengthen their communication and advocacy efforts to improve the desire for boosters.
To vaccinate 70% of the provincial population and 85% of the A2 category in the provinces, LGUs were implementing recalibration strategies.
The DOH undersecretary said experts were studying the recommendation for second boosters.
The Philippines aims to fully vaccinate 90 million of its population against COVID-19.
As of this week, the government has been able to fully immunize at least 63 million people or 70 percent of the target. More than 10.1 million people, meanwhile, have already received their booster shots.