Almost 1M get shots during new vax day

Ilocos Norte residents get their COVID-19 jabs in a vaccination facility in Robinsons Mall in San Nicolas town. (Photo courtesy of Ilocos Norte provincial government)

Close to a million doses have been administered so far during the second round of the mass vaccination drive which has been affected by the threat posed by Typhoon “Odette” (international name: Rai).

According to Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, a total of 953,624 individuals were inoculated on Dec. 15, the first day of the campaign.

The Calabarzon region—composed of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon—administered the highest number of jabs at 187,000, followed by Central Luzon with 168,000, and Ilocos Region with 66,000.

But in terms of meeting the target, Cagayan Valley region was closest as it was able to hit 37.58 percent of its target, followed by the Ilocos Region with 32.86 percent and the Cordillera Autonomous Region with 24.63 percent.

The national government had postponed to next week the COVID-19 vaccination drive in 11 regions due to the typhoon although some local governments decided to push through with the activity on a limited scale.

“Some decided to go on, although [their coverage was] not as massive. That is the problem that we saw on the first day,” Cabotaje said at the Laging Handa briefing.

Instead of visiting far-flung areas to vaccinate the people there, many local governments chose to go to nearby areas instead, she added.

According to her, the national government was on track to reach its target of administering 7 million doses during the second round of the national vaccination campaign.

Cabotaje observed that many people still preferred mRNA vaccines, particularly the Pfizer-BioNtech brand, especially for their booster shots.

While those getting booster shots are allowed to select the brand they want, she appealed to those being inoculated with their first dose to accept whatever is available at the inoculation site.

They could exercise their option of choosing their preferred brand when they get their booster shots, she said.

Recommendation

At the same time, Cabotaje reported that government health experts were studying a recommendation to shorten the interval between second doses and booster shots from six to just four to five months due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The country reported its first two cases the other day.

“It is ongoing; it will be studied, so hopefully by the end of the year or early next year, we will have the recommendation from our experts,” she said at the Laging Handa briefing.

Cabotaje urged the public to get vaccinated, especially given the nature of the highly mutated Omicron variant, to reduce the chance of infection.

“It’s very important that all members of the household are vaccinated,” she said.

Small studies done showed that there were few Omicron cases among the elderly in the United Kingdom, where many of the high-risk population had received booster shots, according to Cabotaje.

The same study, she added, found that children of unvaccinated parents appeared to be at risk.

“So it’s important for the household to vaccinate the grandfather, grandmother and parents to protect the children,” Cabotaje said.