DOH: 2nd booster jab not required of frontliners

The Department of Health (DOH) will not compel health-care workers to get a second booster of COVID-19 vaccine despite the low uptake among medical front-liners for a fourth dose of the vaccine.

DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire downplayed the report that as of Dec. 12, only half or 603,905 of the country’s 1.2 million health-care workers have received the second booster shot.

This means 592,202 healthcare workers have yet to avail of the second booster after seven months since the rollout last May.

According to Vergeire, the elderly and people with existing medical conditions have more need for the booster shot because health experts have determined that one booster shot after the primary vaccine series, usually consisting of two doses, already protects “well” against severe and critical infection.

“The second booster shot was recommended because evidence showed that it gives more protection especially to our elderly and those with comorbidities,” Vergeire said at a press briefing on Tuesday.

“Most of these individuals who have not received the second booster are not part of the vulnerable groups, like the elderly health-care workers and those with comorbidities,” she added.

“We still encourage them but we cannot mandate them to have the second booster and tell them you cannot work [otherwise]. We cannot do that as a precondition because there is evidence that the first booster shot protects them already from severe and critical infection,” Vergeire continued.

The DOH still encourages health-care workers who have not availed of a second booster shot to take it.

Currently, second booster shots are made available to health-care workers, persons at least 50 years old and individuals 18 to 49 years old with existing medical conditions.

So far, a total of 3,691,412 individuals have availed of the second booster shot out of 73.7 million individuals who have received their primary doses.