Fully vaccinated health-care workers will start receiving a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday and they will be followed soon by the elderly and people with comorbidities, according to the Department of Health (DOH) and the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF).
Only three vaccines—produced by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac—were approved for what the DOH called as the “heterologous vaccine strategy,” which would allow a jab from any of the approved brands on fully inoculated individuals who may have been first injected with a different brand.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for these vaccines.
The National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) has yet to release its guidelines for the booster campaign, including the period when best to administer the shot, or the elapsed time between the last of their primary shot and the planned booster dose.
“Based on the EUA issued by the FDA, the DOH recommends using either Moderna, Pfizer and Sinovac as booster doses regardless of the brand used for the primary series. Sinovac will also be offered as a booster for those [who] had Sinovac as primary series,” the DOH said late Monday night.
But Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a radio interview on Tuesday that a “homologous” strategy would be prioritized as booster shots as there was more certainty in the reactions as this entailed injecting the same type of vaccine.
He also said that the green light for boosters was given by the DOH ahead of the final recommendation from the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) of the World Health Organization (WHO), which was held for at least a week. (© Philippine Daily Inquirer News)
