The country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted six brands emergency use licenses for use as second Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, the Department of Health said on Tuesday.
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said in a “Laging Handa” briefing that the FDA had approved Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Sputnik Light and Janssen Covid-19 vaccines.
“Ready na iyong ating guidelines, idadagdag lang natin iyong provisions na ng FDA [emergency use authorization] at saka nitong final recommendations ng ating Health Technology Assessment Council,” she said.
Cabotaje said the guidelines could be released by Wednesday, April 20.
“Hopefully maka-rollout tayo earliest by the end of the week, latest by start of next week,” she said.
Experts have warned of an uptick in cases in the coming weeks due to social gatherings during religious and elections-related activities.
Dr. Rajendra Yadav, acting WHO representative to the Philippines, said Filipinos should always wear masks and get their booster shots to ready themselves for a possible surge.
The government aims to fully vaccinate 100 percent of the country’s target population by June.
An adviser of Duterte has made the proposal to require booster shots by June to utilize the vaccine jabs in stock and potentially fight new Covid-19 variants that might emerge. John Ezekiel J. Hirro