Concepcion warns COVID surge in late April if administration of booster vax remains low

FILE PHOTO: Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship, Secretary Joey Concepcion. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines may experience another surge of COVID-19 infections in the second half of April if the uptake of booster shots remains low, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion warned on Monday.

Concepcion expressed concern over the low uptake of COVID-19 booster shots, saying only 30% of the population in Metro Manila have received their booster dose while other regions only registered 10% of their population have received their booster dose.

“Kung hindi tataas ‘yung booster uptake ng citizens natin baka may surge tayo sa 2nd half of April dahil masyadong mababa itong uptake ng booster,” he said.

(If the booster uptake will not increase, we may experience a surge of infections in the second half of April because of the very low booster uptake.

He urged the public to get their booster shots because the country cannot afford another series of lockdowns since it would ruin the “momentum” of the currently reopening economy.

With the low uptake of booster shots, it is also not likely that the government will remove the alert level system and implement the “new normal” since the Philippines should have given booster shots to 70% to 80% of the population before it can remove the emergency health status.

“Delikado kung buksan natin at tanggalin ‘yung alert level natin. Kailangan i-focus natin ang energy dito sa mga booster,” Concepcion said.

(It is risky to open and remove the alert levels. We need to focus our energy on our boosters.)

Based on DOH data, around 65 million individuals in the country are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of March 20.

About 11.5 million, meanwhile, have received their third or booster dose.

JPV