Only 29 percent of eligible population have gotten booster shots, says DOH

Motorists line up aboard their four-wheeled vehicles at the drive-thru booster vaccination site in the Quirino Grandstand in Manila City on Thursday, January 13, 2022. Photo from the Manila Public Information Office (File Photo)

MANILA, Philippines — Only around 29 percent of qualified individuals in the country have gotten their booster shots, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.

In an advisory, DOH said only 9.7 million of the 33.5 million eligible people have received their booster shots.

This is despite the fact that booster shots are shown to have significant impact in preventing hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and severe disease, said the DOH.

Health experts reiterated that vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization for the Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is at 72 percent two to 24 weeks after the second dose but drops to 52 percent after 25 weeks.

With booster shots, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization increases to 88 percent.

“The public is assured that all COVID-19 vaccines with an Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration are proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19,” DOH said.

“Hence, we invite all eligible individuals to complete their primary series and to get their booster shots to protect not only themselves and loved ones, but the community as a whole,” it added.

As of Feb. 21, active infections of COVID-19 nationwide reached 58,657 out of 3,653,526 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Deaths, meanwhile, number 55,763 in total.

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