MORE than 40 million fully vaccinated individuals have remained unable to get their booster shots despite being qualified to get additional doses of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines.
In a statement, the Department of Health (DOH) said almost 75 percent of the fully vaccinated individuals qualified to get booster shots have not received their additional doses.
"There are 54.4 million individuals due for booster doses, of which 13.7 million or 25 percent have already been boosted," said the DOH.
"There are 40.6 million left to be boosted," it added.
Previously, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said that the low number of people availing booster shots can be attributed to the lack of sense of urgency.
"They know the importance of getting booster shots, but they don't know the urgency. Some don't want to miss their work so they haven't gotten their booster shots yet," Cabotaje said earlier.
Despite this, the DOH has started to provide second booster shots to senior citizens and frontline health workers.
The second booster shots can be given at least four months after the administration of the first booster shot.
Data showed that there are 1,090,778 healthcare workers who are already eligible for second booster doses.
There are also 2,143,251 eligible senior citizens. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)