Philippines expands booster coverage
Manila: the department of health( d oh) expanded coverage of the second coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine boosters to adults of 60 years old and those aged 18 to 49 with medical conditions, but the order may have come a little too late.
This emerged after businessman Joey Concepcion criticised the DOH and the Health Technology Assessment Council, its advisory body, to allow the second dose as more than 4.25 million doses which cost the private sector approximately $100 million have already expired.
Con cepc ions aid the private sector’ s final batch of A st raze ne ca have already expired, totaling 623,680 doses would expire by the end of this month.
The last batch of Moderna vaccines, totaling 864,700 vaccines expired last July 27.
As a result, the country has only Pfizer vaccines left for both first and second boosters, he added. He claimed, they had already asked the DOH and the HTAC to allow a second booster vaccination as millions of doses were about to expire as early as last April.
“The lack of urgency on the part of the HTAC and the DOH at which the vaccination advisories, policies, and implementation progressed caused the bulk disposal off these hard-earned COVID-19 vaccines,” Concepcion lamented.
He said the expiration of the vaccines could have been avoided had the HTAC “simply listened to the CDC back in March when it recommended additional boosters for those as young as 50 years old.” “The expiry dates of these vaccines have already been extended and there is nothing more that can be done, butt to accept this preventable loss,” Conception added.
“We have to learn from this. I Think what really contributed to this was the lack of clear rules on the vaccines: who is allowed to take the vaccines, and the ability of some bodies to move swiftly with science, and the reality on the ground.” Moving forward, Concepcion said he was upbeat that the country’s pandemic response would “be more responsive” inline with “the directives coming from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.” Meanwhile, to be eligible for a second booster shot, a vaccinated person must have received the first booster dose at least four months earlier.