THE public should get their remaining primary or booster doses against Covid-19 while the vaccines are still given for free, urged the Davao City Health Office (CHO) on Friday, January 27.
Dr. Marjorie Culas, officer-in-charge of CHO, said if the national government decides to lift the state of public health emergency for Covid-19, it is possible that the vaccines would no longer be free.
Instead, the city government would have to shell out funds intended to buy vaccine doses or, if the vaccine manufacturers finish their clinical trial and are given the approval for production registration, the vaccine could be available in the market to be bought by consumers.
“Sabutan pa nila kung dili i-extend ang state of emergency (The government would have to discuss whether to extend the state of emergency or not). Kung dili na siya state of emergency, muabot ang panahon nga paliton na gyod nato ang vaccine (If not, there will really come a time that we would have to buy or vaccines),” Culas said during an interview with the Davao City Disaster Radio.
Thus, Culas said Dabawenyos are urged to get their vaccine doses against Covid-19 while the city still has a free supply.
Regionwide, Covid-19 vaccine statistics show that there is still a huge gap between the number of people who are fully vaccinated and those who have already received their first booster dose.
Based on the vaccine statistics of the Department of Health in the Davao Region as of January 18, only 18 percent, or 684,397 received their first booster dose out of 3,348,331 fully vaccinated individuals.
The coverage for the second booster dose is much lower at 3.6 percent or 136,295.
However, in Davao City, Culas said booster dose coverage is progressing albeit rather slowly.
“Dili gyod taas ang pagsaka (It did not increase by a lot) but little by little, kay nahadlok na pud ang mga tao tungod naa pa man ang Covid-19 (because the people are still aware about Covid) (and the current situation in China),” she said.
On January 17, Department of Health officer-in-charge Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Philippines is prepared if the World Health Organization decides to lift the global public health emergency on Covid-19.
“The Philippines will continue to be cautious and vigilant, and we will still be imposing these same restrictions that we have right now which are not so much strict, but we have that safeguard that anytime cases will increase, we have the safeguards that we can rely on and we can impose to better protect Filipinos,” Vergeire said. ICM