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CHR in favor of prioritizing healthcare workers for COVID-19 booster shots
The Commission on Human Rights on Monday said it is supporting vaccine czar Carlito Galvez's statement last week that healthcare workers should be prioritized in the administration of COVID-19 booster shots.
"While the World Health Organization has yet to recommend the use of booster shots, evidence and recommendations from medical experts suggest that some healthcare workers inoculated with certain vaccines may experience waning protection against Covid," CHR spokesperson Atty. Jacqueline Ann de Guia said in a statement.
De Guia said frontliners remain at risk of contracting COVID-19 due to the Delta variant.
"Breakthrough infections in the Philippines which stands at 0.0013 percent of 9.1 million fully vaccinated individuals may seem infinitesimal. However, there is no denying that more and more frontliners are increasingly at risk of breakthrough infections in the midst of the highly transmissible Delta variant which has rapidly become the dominant Covid strain in the country," she said.
"Crucial to sustaining our efforts in the fight against this pandemic is equipping our medical frontliners with the right amount of protection. As we await further recommendations from the Vaccine Expert Panel of the Department of Science and Technology, the Commission remains hopeful that should the administration booster shoots be approved, ample vaccine supplies will be ready for medical workers and immunocompromised individuals," de Guia said.
"Ultimately, the best way we can stop Covid and its mutations is to prevent its transmission. There is no mutation with no replication. Hence, the Commission urges everyone for their continued vigilance and exercise of health precautions during this pandemic," she added.
Earlier this month, Galvez said he is in favor of giving COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to healthcare workers and people with comorbidities.
“I don’t have any problem with it. Our healthcare workers must be given full protection,” he said in Filipino during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay online forum, adding Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac is willing to donate 500,000 booster doses for medical workers.
Galvez, however, said the government is still waiting for the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the vaccine expert panel.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III however on Saturday said they are considering “ethical issues”
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Department of Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje on Sunday said over 18 million Filipinos have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19 since the national inoculation program started on March 1.
Cabotaje said the Philippines has administered nearly 41 million doses of various COVID-19 vaccines based on the September 18, 2021 record.
Duque said the government will prepare funds for the procurement of COVID-19 booster shots.
Under the 2022 National Expenditures Program proposed by the the Duterte administration, there is an allocation of P45 billion for the procurement of COVID-19 booster shots.
The Philippines reported 19,271 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, raising the number of active cases in the country to 178,196.
The new cases brought the country's total COVID-19 caseload to 2,366,749.
Total recoveries, meanwhile, increased to 2,151,765 after 25,037 more patients defeated the respiratory illness.
The death toll rose to 36,788 with 205 new fatalities. —KG, GMA News