Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion has urged the government to speed up giving booster vaccines against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) amid the threat posed by the Omicron variant.
Concepcion, who is also the founder of Go Negosyo, said the country has an adequate stock of vaccines and these should be rolled out immediately to inoculate the unvaccinated and to be given as booster shots for those who have completed their vaccines.
“We have the vaccines and it will be those vaccines that will create that wall of protection,” he said during Go Negosyo’s town hall meeting Wednesday.
Go Negosyo’s partner OCTA Research Group also recommends shortening the interval between the last dose and booster shot to four months.
In a joint statement, Concepcion and OCTA research fellow Fr. Nicanor Austriaco said data suggest that the efficacy of vaccines against Covid-19 “significantly decreases at around five months” and sometimes sooner, depending on the brand of the jab.
“We don’t want to wait until our immunity is lost. It will make our kababayans more vulnerable. Given the excess supply, our country should consider shortening the gap to protect more of our kababayans in the months to come,” Austriaco added.
He also cited the recent announcement of Denmark that it would administer booster shots at 4.5 months as the effectiveness of vaccines start to wane after five months.
To prevent a massive surge amid threats of the Omicron variant, the national government must prepare to give boosters to Filipinos within the first half of 2022, he said.
Last month, at least 26 groups from the private sector urged the national government to allow their procured vaccines to be used as booster doses for their employees and their household members.
The country has adequate vaccines to rollout given the better supply condition globally.
About 2.25 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Wednesday evening. These jabs were procured by the private sector. (PNA)
