Hike in hospitalization feared due to waning COVID immunity, DOH warns

Department of Health officer-in-charge Rosario Vergeire. INQUIRER FILE

MANILA, Philippines — Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 might go up by the end of September or early October due to the population’s waning immunity, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Friday.

DOH officer-in-charge Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the agency’s projection is based on the assumption that booster shot administration would not improve.

“In our updated projections, hospitalizations might increase towards the end of September to October,” Vergeire said in a media forum.

“Ito po ay base sa atin pong assumptions na ang ating pagfi-first booster shot ay hindi po mag-i-improve from the current rate that we have,” she added.

(This is based on our assumption that our first booster shot administration would not improve from our current rate.)

The official noted that booster shot administration is currently on a “plateauing” trend.

Last week, the DOH launched PinasLakas, a program that aims to administer 23 million booster doses during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first 100 days in the office or until October 8.

The DOH, however, failed to meet its target for the first week. Hence, increasing the daily vaccination goal.

“Hindi pa ho natin nakikita na tumataas ang mga accomplishments for the first booster shot sa ngayon,” said Vergeire.

(We are not seeing an increase in the accomplishments for the first booster shot so far.)

She encouraged the public to immunize against COVID-19 to prevent the projected rise in hospitalizations.

Based on the latest DOH data, some 71.5 million individuals are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Of the figure, 16.4 million got a booster dose.

JPV/abc