Philippines wants most healthcare workers to get booster shots in November

The national government is looking to vaccinate against COVID-19 most of the country's 1.6 million fully vaccinated health workers by the end of November.

According to Lei Alviz's report on "24 Oras", vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. indicated the government wanted the healthcare system to be prepared in case another surge of infections hit the country.

"Kailangan tapusin natin ASAP dahil nakikita natin tumataas na 'yung area ng Europe. We want by  time magkaroon ng pagtaas dito, tapos na ang (bakunahan ng) health workers," Galvez said.

[We need to finish this ASAP because we are seeing a surge of cases in Europe. If cases rise again, we want booster shots for health workers to be finished.]

The country has started the inoculation of fully vaccinated health workers with booster shots after the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) released its guidelines additional jabs.

NVOC had advised Filipinos who were fully vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna, Sinovac, Gamaleya, and AstraZeneca to wait at least six months before getting a booster shot.

Aside from health workers, Galvez said the government approved the inoculation of booster shots for fully vaccinated seniors and people with comorbidities by next week. -Consuelo Marquez/NB, GMA News