Barangay health workers monitor children before they get their COVID-19 shots at the Municipal Vaccination Operation Center in San Marcelino town, Zambales province (Photo courtesy of San Marcelino Public Information Office)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported that the COVID-19 positivity rate stood at 3.4 percent on Thursday, the sixth consecutive day of staying within the prescribed level of the World Health Organization.
This means that the country needs to maintain this level for just another eight days to declare that COVID-19 has been contained.
On Thursday, the DOH reported that new daily infections inched up to 1,297 from Wednesday’s 1,190, raising the total number of cases to 2,821,753.
Active cases, or those currently sick with the virus, totaled 23,158. Majority, or 58.5 percent, had mild symptoms.
Ramp up vaccination
For two days in a row, new fatalities were at the 300 level, with 305 more deaths on Wednesday. These brought the death toll to 46,422.
There were 1,956 new recoveries, bringing the total number of survivors to 2,752,173.Vaccine expert panel head Dr. Nina Gloriani said on Thursday that the government must ramp up its COVID-19 vaccination of those who have not received a single dose before talking about administering booster shots to minors.
During the Laging Handa briefing, Gloriani was asked if children age 12 to 17, who have undergone COVID-19 vaccination, could be given a booster shot.
She said the government was not discussing this yet, pointing out that everyone needed to understand that the main goal was to jab the unvaccinated.“We need to boost the number of individuals who have received the first two doses, not the third dose yet,” she said in Filipino.
Kids’ boosters
Children need to finish the first two doses and since they have a better immune response than adults, the government is not worried about the vaccine’s waning immunity among minors, Gloriani said.
The government has just started rolling out its pediatric COVID-19 vaccination to minors age 12 to 17.
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje earlier said that discussions on the possible COVID-19 vaccination of children age below 12 were also already under way. —With a report from Daniza Fernandez of Inquirer.net