Four Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers are seeking to expand the coverage of their vaccines’ emergency use license to cover booster and third shots, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.

FDA chief Eric Domingo said the vaccine brands were Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Sputnik V.

“Nag-request po sila na ma-include ang third dose sa kanilang regimen ‘no or a booster dose. At ipinadala po nila ‘yung kanilang scientific data available at ito po ‘yung inaaral ngayon ng ating mga experts,” he said.

Third doses and booster shots are different.

Third doses are administered to immunocompromised individuals to generate and complete the required immunity against Covid-19, while booster shots are given to healthy individuals for further protection.

Added Domingo, the Department of Health was studying mixing and matching vaccine brands for booster and third shots.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. has said that the country could start injecting additional jabs by Nov. 15. John Ezekiel J. Hirro