Palace: Skipping booster shot amid lowering COVID-19 cases a misguided view

The Palace said Tuesday that individuals fully vaccinated against COVID-19 who refuse to get a booster shot due to the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases are still exposing themselves to risk and should get a booster jab soon as possible.

Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said that while 33.5 million individuals are already qualified to get a booster, only 29% of them already got their booster shot against COVID-19.

"This means there are 23 million people who [have] yet to get their booster shots. Iniisip siguro ng karamihan: Bakit kailangan nito?  Bumababa naman na ang kaso ng COVID-19 sa bansa. There is very little risk of getting COVID today. Kuno," Nograles said during the Palace briefing.

(These people might be thinking, why the need for booster shots? COVID-19 cases are going down, there is very little risk of getting COVID-19 today. That's what they claim.)

"Misguided po ang ganitong pananaw. Kailangan pa rin natin ng dagdag na proteksiyon. Ika nga, it is better to be safe than sorry. Sabi nga ng Pangulo, pinag-aralan ito ng mga eksperto," he added.

(Such a take is misguided. We still need additional protection. As they say, better be safe than sorry. As the President already said, the vaccines were thoroughly studied by experts.)

Nograles then reiterated that the COVID-19 vaccines available in the country are of high quality, safe and effective.

"Ito (bakuna) ay ating panlaban, hindi kalaban. Pansagip ng buhay, pambangon ng kabuhayan. Magpabakuna at magpa-booster shots na po tayo," Nograles added.

(COVID-19 vaccines are our weapon, not the enemy. It saves our lives and enables us to go to work safely. Let us get vaccinated and booster shots.)

Nograles said Tuesday that there are 62.6 million Filipinos fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far.

The Department of Health on Tuesday said that all regions in the country are now at low risk for COVID-19 except for the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Davao Region.

This means that all regions at low risk have been reporting less than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the week. — RSJ, GMA News