Marcos again urges public to avail of COVID-19 booster shots

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Monday repeated his call for the public to get booster shots as additional protection against COVID-19.

Marcos attended the launch of the “PinasLakas” campaign, which aims to administer booster shots to 50% of the country's eligible population in the next three months.

"Anyway, kaya nga ako nagpunta rito dahil nga makita na maganda ang ating pag-rollout ng mga booster ulit. Kaya’t kayo na nandito na magpapa-booster na ay hikayatin ninyo ‘yung mga kasamahan ninyo, ‘yung pamilya ninyo lahat, sabihin ninyo lahat na magpa-booster na para hindi niyo na kailangan alalahanin itong COVID na ito para masasabi natin dito sa Pilipinas ay tapos na," Marcos said in his remarks.

(I came here to see if we successfully rolled out the boosters again. That's why all of you here who are getting boosters, urge your companions, your relatives, everyone, tell them to get booster shots so they no longer have to worry about this COVID. So we can say that here in the Philippines, [the pandemic] is over.)

"Wala naman tayong ibang panlaban dito kung hindi ang vaccine. Huwag na po tayo — ‘wag na po nating hintayin na dumami pa ang mga kaso at maging mahirap na naman ang ating pagpunta sa trabaho, ang ating paglabas ng bahay," he added.

(We don't have anything else to combat this with except the vaccine. Let's not wait for cases to increase and going to work, leaving the home would again become difficult.)

The PinasLakas campaign aims to give booster shots to 23.8 million Filipinos within the first 100 days of the Marcos administration. It also seeks to vaccinate 90% of the target senior-citizen population group within the same period.

According to the Department of Health, the government needs to vaccinate 397,334 individuals daily for 60 days to achieve the target.

Meanwhile, in an interview with reporters, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said mandatory vaccinations were not needed as the previous strategies to encourage the public to get vaccinated had worked.

"We have done different strategies before kung saan hindi naman natin kinakailangan na mandatory ang pagpapabakuna," Vergeire said.

"Kailangan lang talaga we were able to encourage better our citizens para magpafirst booster shots, marealize ng mga tao na kailangan nila para hindi sila nagkakaroon ng severe at critical na impeksyon ng COVID," she added.

(All that is needed is to get better in encouraging our citizens to get their first booster shot, have people realize that they need this to avoid severe and critical COVID infections.) — DVM, GMA News