Health workers and the elderly may now receive a second booster against COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday.
Messenger RNA vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna will be given at least four months after the administration of the first booster dose, following the recommendation of the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC), the DOH said in a statement.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire noted that the second booster would protect health workers and senior citizens against all variants of COVID-19, including the recent Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1.
“Everyone eligible can get the second booster jab done at the LGU vaccination sites nearest you. They are safe, effective, and free of charge,” Vergeire said.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month amended the emergency use authorization (EUA) of COVID-19 vaccines to include another additional dose for vulnerable sectors.
The government initially rolled out the second booster to immunocompromised persons following HTAC’s recommendation and has so far administered it to 30,912 members of the vulnerable sector, said Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje.
As of Monday, some 68 million or 76.29 percent of the eligible 90 million population in the country have been fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, the DOH said.
Of those with primary doses, 13.6 million have received their booster shots.
The government’s Vaccine Expert Panel said the efficacy of messenger RNA booster shots such as Pfizer and Moderna against the Omicron COVID-19 variant decreases to 50 percent after three month.
“Studies abroad also found that after the first booster or third dose, immunity wanes especially against the Omicron variant and subvariants.
That’s extremely important, especially for those who are not yet vaccinated. For those who are vaccinated, protection from two doses is not enough,” said Dr. Nina Gloriani in a televised press briefing.
The Philippines has recently detected 17 cases of the highly transmissible BA.2.12.1, a sub-variant of the dominant BA.2.
The bivalent vaccine being developed by Moderna, which contains the original Wuhan strain and the beta variant, shows promise against the Delta and Omicron variants, Gloriani said.
“When given as a booster, it increases neutralizing antibodies 2 to 2.5 times compared with a booster containing the original strain,” she said. “It also has good reactions against other variants—Delta and Omicron—because these have common mutations.”