San Juan begins booster vaccination of seniors, persons with comorbidities

The San Juan City government started on Tuesday the roll out of the COVID-19 booster shots for senior citizens and persons with comorbidities.

“Ito’y isang patunay na talagang ang ating mamamayan dito sa San Juan ay naiintindihan ang importansya ng ating pagbabakuna. Tayo po ay lagpas 240% na ng ating target population ang nabakunahan,” city mayor Francis Zamora said.

(This is proof that our residents here in San Juan understand the importance of vaccination. More than 240% of our target population have been vaccinated.)

“We were expecting only around 1,000 senior citizens for today but now I’m looking at around 2,000 until the end of the day and that is good for us sapagkat itong venue na ‘to kaya hanggang 3,000 sa isang araw (because this venue can accommodate up to 3,000 people per day),” he added.

Zamora said that those who want to get the boosters need to register at the city’s online vaccination portal.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the booster shots are given when immunity starts to wane after several months since receiving the vaccine while additional doses, or the third doses, are given to individuals who cannot mount the appropriate immunity against the sickness.

Booster shots are given to senior citizens, while immunocompromised individuals will be given a third dose.

On November 18, Zamora said they are done inoculating about 5,000 children in the city aged 12-17 years old, and those non-residents who are studying in the city who registered in their vaccination program.

The city has also administered the booster shots of its healthcare workers, including 1,200 working in the city and 3,000 at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center.

As of Monday, November 22, the San Juan government reported 29 active cases out of 15,269 confirmed cases.  Of these, a total of14,913 have recovered while 327 died from the virus.—Giselle Ombay/LDF, GMA News