COVID-19 boosters eyed in 2 weeks

—LYN RILLON/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Confident that the country’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines will last until the middle of 2022, the government is looking at administering booster and third shots to healthcare workers, senior citizens, and immunocompromised individuals by the middle of November.

“Our projected implementation is Nov. 15, but we are still waiting guidance from the policy team, the revision of our emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) recommendation,” vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said during a meeting with President Duterte on Tuesday night.

This is pending the issuance of guidelines and recommendations from health experts and the revision of the EUA for COVID-19 vaccines to be used as booster or third shots.

During the same meeting, FDA Director General Rolando Enrique Domingo said his agency received applications from Pfizer BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac Biotech and Sputnik V to amend their vaccines’ EUA to include a third dose.

“They requested that a third dose be included in their regimen, or the booster dose. They sent their scientific data available and our experts are studying this,” Domingo said.

He added that it was possible not everyone would need a booster shot, depending on their risk for contracting COVID-19 and immunity level.

“The trend that we are seeing is that not everybody will need a third dose, but only those who need it like the elderly, the immunocompromised and the health-care workers,” he said. Health Undersecretary and National Vaccine Operations Center Chair Myrna Cabotaje told reporters on Wednesday that about 1.8 million or 1.9 million booster shots would be set aside for medical front-liners who were constantly exposed to the virus.

“We will start with the health-care workers [in the booster rollout] … we are now tallying and doing [an] inventory [of] the health-care workers who would be vaccinated, when [it will take place] and which vaccine types would be administered to them,” she said.

In a separate online briefing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the administration of boosters might be implemented within the month as soon as the recommendation by the SAGE, an advisory to the WHO, comes out in the middle of the month.

“We are awaiting the recommendation of the WHO’s SAGE group by mid-November. Chances are we will be able to implement a booster and third [dose] policy within this month. This is the communication I received from WHO country representative Dr. [Rabindra] Abeyasinghe,” Duque said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.

Cabotaje noted that more than six months has passed since medical front-liners received their COVID-19 shots, mostly Sinovac and AstraZeneca. Immunity against COVID-19 from the vaccines was estimated to usually wane after six months. The priority group was the first to get jabbed when the country launched its vaccination drive in March.

The brand of the booster shot would depend on vaccine availability and the recommendation by experts, Cabotaje said.

As of the end of October, the Philippines had received 106,212,560 million vaccine doses, with 59,316,764 already administered. So far, 31,955,891 individuals have gotten their first dose while 27,360,873 have received a second dose.