GET THE JAB Nurses at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City are urging people to get vaccinated as health workers prepare for the long battle against COVID-19. —DALE ISRAEL
MANILA, Philippines — Relatives or household members of health workers are not included in the national government’s COVID-19 vaccine booster program for now, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday.
According to DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, this is because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorization for the booster doses only covered frontline healthcare workers, senior citizens, and people with comorbidities.
Under the country’s vaccine prioritization system, household members of healthcare workers are part of the extended A1 classification, or the top priority for vaccine doses.
“We understand that the family members of healthcare workers is part of the expanded A1, pero ‘pag tinignan ho natin ang binigyan pa lang ng emergency use authority ng [FDA] is for us to deploy or to provide boosters to senior citizens, healthcare workers, and to individuals with comorbidities,” Vergeire said.
(We understand that the family members of healthcare workers are part of the expanded A1, but if we take a look at the emergency use authority issued by the FDA, it tells us to deploy or to provide boosters to senior citizens, healthcare workers, and to individuals with comorbidities.)
“So ‘yon pong expanded A1 natin for family members, hindi po muna natin sila bibigyan, we will just focus on these three sectors of the population first based on the EUA that we have,” she added.
(So our expanded A1 for family members, we cannot provide them with vaccines yet we will just focus on these three sectors of the population first based on the EUA that we have.)
On Wednesday, the government started providing COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for healthcare workers who were fully immunized over six months ago, due to concerns of a waning protection against hospitalization and severe infections.
This means that health workers can get a booster in November if they got their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on or before May, or in August for one-dose vaccines.