DOH: Health workers, senior citizens to get first crack at bivalent vaccines

Davinci Maru, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Vials of COVID-19 vaccines are being prepared at a vaccination site in Makati City on July 28, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/02/28/20220728-covid-vaccine-makati-gc-3.jpg"/><figcaption>Vials of COVID-19 vaccines are being prepared at a vaccination site in Makati City on July 28, 2022. <em>George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA — The Philippines will administer the first batch of bivalent COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers and senior citizens, the Department of Health said Tuesday.</p><p>According to DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, individuals are eligible for the omicron-targeted jabs if it has been 4 months since their most recent vaccination.</p><p>&quot;Gagamitin muna natin siya dun sa mas priority natin dahil hindi siya mahuhusto para sa lahat nung A1 to A3. So, we are now prioritizing A1 and A2 population,&quot; she said in a press briefing.</p><p>(We will use it first for our top priority because the jabs will not be enough for everyone in A1 to A3.) </p><p>The agency has secured 1,002,000 million doses of Pfizer&#x27;s bivalent vaccines from COVAX facility, the United Nations-backed international vaccine-sharing scheme.</p><p>Bivalent vaccines are modified jabs that target the omicron variant and the original form of the virus.</p><p>&quot;They have committed that in about 3-4 weeks dadating ang mga bakuna natin. Hopefully, ito ay mangyari,&quot; Vergeire said.</p><p>(They have committed that our shots will arrive in about 3-4 weeks. Hopefully, this will happen.)</p><p>The DOH has also finalized the operational guidelines on the use of the bivalent vaccines.</p><p>&quot;Kailangan na lang lamang pong mapirmahan ng mga execom members for us to issue this department memorandum so our local governments can prepare already,&quot; Vergeire said.</p><p>(Executive committee members just need to sign this.) </p><p>To date, around 73.8 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.</p><p>Of the figure, over 21.5 million have received first boosters while 3.9 million have gotten second boosters.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2482950" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div style="text-align:center"><em><strong>Courtesy of DOH</strong></em></div>

The Philippines will administer the first batch of bivalent COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers and senior citizens, the DOH said Tuesday.

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DOH: Health workers, senior citizens to get first crack at bivalent vaccines

Davinci Maru,

ABS-CBN News

Published Feb 28, 2023 03:53 PM PHT

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