100 health frontliners get booster shots vs COVID-19 in Cagayan

Dr. Glenn Mathew Baggao, chief of the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC), gets his booster shot of Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 on Wednesday, Nov. 17. (Photo courtesy of CVMC photo)

TUGUEGARAO CITY—At least 100 government health frontliners were given booster shots of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines during a mass jabs rollout Wednesday at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) in this city.

In an interview, Dr. Glenn Mathew Baggao, CVMC hospital chief, said they prioritized COVID-19 ward doctors and other key health frontliners for the booster or third jab.

“These much-awaited booster shots will give us continuous protection while doing our duties,” he said.

Baggao said the Department of Health had directed a heterologous vaccination for the booster shot to ensure its efficacy, noting that vaccines with the same brands tend to lose their efficacy on third shots for the same person. Heterologous vaccination is injecting the third dose from a different manufacturer.

Baggao said a sharp downtrend in the number of new virus-infected patients was observed in the CVMC.

As of Tuesday, the hospital was treating only 60 cases after peaking at an average of 200 in the past months.

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