Marcos administration aims to boost 50% of population in first 100 days

The government has to vaccinate 397,334 individuals per day for 60 days in order to achieve the target of 50% booster coverage set by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr., for his first 100 days in office, the Department of Health (DoH) said in a July 19 Viber message.

This number represents about half of the 78,100,578 individuals in the eligible population, minus the 15,210,257 who have already been given their first booster (or their third dose), explained the DoH. “Doing so will strengthen the wall of immunity of our population to prevent severe and critical COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) cases.”

“Muli kong inihahayag sa inyo ang importansya ng pagpapabakuna at booster shots [I am reiterating the importance of vaccinations and booster shots],” Mr. Marcos said in a July 16 vlog.

“Malaking bahagi ito sa preparasyon natin sa pagbabalik ng face to face classes at sa pagluwag ng iba pang [This is a huge part of our preparation back to face-to-face classes and the loosening of our other] safety protocols.]”

Mr. Marcos exited isolation on July 15 after testing positive for the virus July 8.

The DoH has reiterated the need to get boosted as it sees COVID-19 cases may peak by the end of July while hospitalization may rise by the end of August.

An expert review on global real-world vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, showed that messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer), vector vaccines (AstraZeneca), and inactivated virus vaccines (CoronaVac) “provide consistently high (>90%) protection against serious clinical outcomes like hospitalizations and deaths, regardless of variant.”

Omicron is the most dominant variant in the Philippines. — Patricia B. Mirasol