DOH coming up with position on COVID-19 booster shots soon —FDA

The Department of Health will soon decide whether to recommend COVID-19 booster shots for vaccinated people, Food and Drug Administration Director General Eric Domingo said Wednesday.

“I think they are still discussing it. The DOH said they will decide soon,” Domingo said in a text message to GMA News Online.

In a separate media interview, Domingo said the DOH could come up with a position within the week.

Last Friday, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the recommendations of the All Experts' Group for COVID-19 Vaccines were still being finalized and will be forwarded to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious  Diseases (IATF) and the vaccine cluster.

So far, only the Vaccine Experts Panel has recommended the use of booster shots on health workers.

World Health Organization (WHO) country representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe said on Tuesday that they called for a moratorium on administering booster shots "unless it is for immunocompromised individuals."

For Iloilo Representative Janette Garin, the government should decide as soon as possible in light of breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated individuals.

“We cannot just make decisions based on WHO recommendations. We should make decisions because that is what our country and what our people need,” Garin said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay online forum.

“We really have to take that bold step because if we keep on delaying and delaying and delaying the decision, time will come that decision will not already be of use to our country,” the former Health secretary added.

The government has requested for standby authority from Congress to buy P45.367 billion worth of booster doses in 2022. —LBG, GMA News