Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 22) — Half of healthcare workers have not yet received their COVID-19 vaccine boosters shots, Department of Health (DOH) Usec. Ma. Rosario Vergeire said on Friday.
Vergeire lamented the number even as almost all medical frontliners have been inoculated with their primary doses.
“Sa ating healthcare workers, almost 95% accomplishment tayo na nabakunahan natin…pero dito sa booster doses we only have an accomplishment of 49.07% so ibig sabihin kalahati sa bilang ng ating mga healthcare workers ay hindi pa nabibigyan ng booster doses,” said Vergeire during a DOH media briefing.
[Translation: Among our healthcare workers, we have an accomplishment of a 95% vaccination rate…but for booster doses specifically, we only have an accomplishment of 49.07%, which means half of our healthcare workers have not yet been given booster doses.]
Infectious diseases expert Dr. Anna Ong-Lim said the low booster rate may be because of complacency due to the dropping number of new COVID-19 cases.
“I think kalaban talaga ng successful vaccination programs itong tinatawag na pagbaba ng kaso,” said Ong-Lim. “Pagka-nababawasan ang dami ng kaso, syempre nagiging kampante ang mga tao, bumababa ang update ng bakuna, and dahil dumadami nanaman ang pool of susceptibles, tataas nanaman ang kaso.”
[Translation: I think successful vaccination programs are really up against what we call falling number of cases. When the number of new cases drop, people are more complacent, there are fewer updates on vaccinations which may lead to another surge because of increased pools of susceptible individuals.]
Earlier in the briefing, Vergeire reported that confirmed infections have reached a plateau in all island groups.
From April 14 to 20, only 1,657 new cases were recorded. Of active cases — or those who currently have the disease — 16,617 have either mild or no symptoms, and 1,246 are in severe or critical condition, the health official said.
Vergeire added that the positivity rate or the percentage of tested people with positive results, dropped from 1.6% to 1.5%. The daily average of new cases is at 236.
