Philippines eyes polling sites as centres for virus jabs

MANIL: The government is seriously considering the use of polling precincts on Election Day, May 9, exactly 10 days away as of Sunday as vaccination centers to encourage more Filipinos to have themselves inoculated against coronavirus (COVID-19).

This was revealed by Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, the health department’s National Vaccination Operation centre chief, amid the slow rate especially in the ongoing campaign for increased COVID-19 booster jabs.

“We have not considered that but we’ll see because everybody will be going to these (polling) areas,” Cabotaje told a media briefing.

“So, we will study if it’s possible to set up vaccination centers in these polling precincts.”

Health officials and experts have noted a slow pace which they atributed to “vaccine hesitancy” among the increasing number of Filipinos to have their COVID inoculation as well as get their booster shots.

They warned a new surge in COVID daily infections was possible especially if the immunity of 50 per cent of those who were fully vaccination would wane.

Inthislight,healthundersecretarymariarosario Vergeire cited the urgent need for Filipinos to get their booster shots to strengthen their protection against the virus.

Experts said the efficacy of vaccines would wane in three to four months.

Data showed that about 51 million Filipinos are eligible for their booster shots ater completing their primary series of vaccination. Of the total, she said, only 14 million have received their boosters.

“(As a result), we have 37 to 38 million individuals who are eligible but have not received their boosters yet,” Vergeire said.

She added the need for boosters has become even more urgent with the confirmed detection of the first case of the highly infectious COVID Omicron subvariant BA.2.12 in the country.

Vergeire said the first subvariant infection was traced to a 52-year-old Finnish woman who visited the Philippines from April 2 to 21.

She revealed 44 of the woman’s close contact had tested negative of the subvariant.

“The probability of having an increase in cases,” she said, “is really high because of the new variant and we see crowding events where many are no longer observing the minimum COVID health standards.”

And more so, she warned, with the national elections just around the corner.

But right now, there has been no significant increase in COVID cases in the past one to two months, according to Vergeire.

For Instance, she disclosed that the cases “are still manageable” – at 215 infections daily as logged by the health department.