Galvez: PH eyes buying booster shots instead of additional Moderna jabs

FILE PHOTO: A nurse draws a Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, at East Valley Community Health Center in La Puente, California, U.S., March 5, 2021. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government is looking into buying booster shots instead of procuring additional Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Wednesday.

Galvez made the disclosure during the joint hearing of the House committee on health and the committee on trade and industry.

“We found out that Moderna is developing a booster. ‘Yung booster na yun ay pwedeng gamitin kahit na Sinovac o kahit na Gamaleya ang ating nauna,” Galvez said.

“Ang kanilang dinedevelop… [na] booster na pwedeng gamitin kahit sa anong vaccine ay darating either September or October so ang balak namin, yung five million, instead na yung bibilhin namin ay yung vaccine, we might buy the booster already. ‘Yan ang titingnan natin,” he added.

Galvez earlier said the Philippine government ordered an additional 5-million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna in addition to the 20 million vaccine doses that the country has already secured from the American manufacturer.

Moderna, meanwhile, said in February that it is working with U.S. government scientists to study an experimental booster shot aimed at addressing the virus variant first found in South Africa that may be more resistant to existing vaccines.

/MUF