Gov't adviser thumbs down booster shot requirement in NCR establishments for now

Booster shots should not be made a requirement yet in establishments in the National Capital Region (NCR) pending significant COVID-19 vaccination coverage, a government adviser said Thursday.

Dr. Edsel Salvana of the Department of Health-Technical Advisory Group was responding to the suggestion of presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion that Metro Manila establishments should require proof of booster shot by March or April.

"Malayo pa tayo sa [panahon na] mabu-boost natin ang lahat ng tao, kasi marami pang hindi nabibigyan ng unang course ng vaccination," Salvana said during the Laging Handa briefing.

(We are far from that point where we can administer booster to everyone because many have yet to get their primary vaccination against COVID-19.)

"We want to make sure that the focus remains on the people na hindi pa natin nababakunahan [who have to be vaccinated against COVID-19]," Salvana added.

There are around 56.8 million Filipinos fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far. The government is eyeing to have 77 million Filipinos fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of March, and 90 million by the end of June or the end of President Rodrigo Duterte's term.

Salvana, meanwhile, warned against underestimating the COVID-19 threat just because the number of cases are decreasing based on the daily reports by the Department of Health.

"Just because it has become endemic, it will not be fatal. We must understand that the idea of COVID-19 being does not mean that it is not harmful anymore," he said.

"COVID-19 being endemic just means vaccination, medicines for it are readily available, and this is something we can live with because we have transformed it into something that is a manageable risk that we need not resort to lockdowns," Salvana added. —KBK, GMA News