More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
A health official on Thursday said setting an expiration date on vaccination cards would be a “good strategy” to encourage Filipinos to get booster shots against COVID-19.
“Yes, that’s also a good strategy,” National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) chairperson Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said in a Teleradyo interview when asked about suggestions to put an expiration date on vaccine cards.
Cabotaje, however, also stressed the need to have stricter checking vaccination cards.
(Those who are checking the vaccine cards, they don’t even check if the card is yours or when your vaccination was, so we might go into more detailed enforcement.)
The government is looking at including booster dose as a requirement for an individual to be considered as fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday.In a radio interview, Health Undersecretary and National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) chairperson Dr. Myrna Cabotaje said the World Health Organization (WHO) defined the term “fully vaccinated” as those who have had the primary vaccine series.
This then is being discussed by local officials to determine if a booster dose could be added as a requirement for fully vaccinated individuals to encourage more people to get their third dose or booster jabs.
(We are looking at the possibility of adding a booster dose, maybe it could be fully vaccinated or updated vaccination, to encourage more people to get boosters. The studies are currently being discussed to see what else we can do to have our people get boosted.)
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/01/22/redefining-fully-vaxxed-to-cause-confusion-doh |
Government's health experts have yet to recommend updating the definition of "fully vaccinated" to include COVID-19 booster shots because it will cause confusion, the Department of Health said Friday.The proposal to change the meaning of full vaccination aims to raise the uptake of booster jabs, which have been received by only 12 million out of 65 million individuals with primary shots.Experts studied other countries' practices such as the US, wherein those who received a booster shot only had their vaccination status updated, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.(The main reason why our experts do not yet want to recommend changing the definition of a fully vaccinated individual is because it’s going to cause confusion since are still unvaccinated.)(Second, the primary series still gives us some sort of protection.)The redefinition can also cause confusion on whether vaccination is mandatory or voluntary, Vergeire said.(if we redefine it, there can be confusion again on mandatory versus voluntary vaccination.)(We just want to implement what is being practiced in other countries, what has more evidence, and what we think will be better for our compatriots.)
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año wants the entire country under COVID-19 Alert Level 1 to boost the economy.
Año on Monday said that with several areas still under Alert Level 2, the economy’s growth would not be maximized.
(Our objective here is for the entire Philippines to be under Alert Level 1 because many provinces and municipalities are left behind under Alert Level 2, we cannot maximize our economic growth.)
Año stressed that the goal is to impose the most relaxed alert level in the entire country.
(That is the goal, the entire Philippines under Alert Level 1 so the restriction would only be observing minimum public health standards, and the different towns would thrive and take off.)
Increased mobility due to relaxed restrictions under Alert Level 1 may have contributed to the rise of index crimes like theft.
In a radio interview on Sunday, Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said more people going out means they and establishments should be more alert. He also assured police visibility.
“(More people are able to go outdoors. In malls, wet markets, there is a rise in the number of pickpockets there),’’ Año said.
Index crimes include murder, homicide, physical injury and rape, and crimes against property, such as robbery, theft, carnapping/carjacking and cattle rustling.
Some 27 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines the Philippine government has acquired are going to expire in three months if unused, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose “Joey” Concepcion III warned over the weekend.
Concepcion lamented that the country has received 237 million vaccine doses, but only 140.7 million have been administered, with 27 million shots expiring in July.
“Let’s not allow 27 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to go to waste,” Concepcion said in an emailed statement.
“Time is of the essence. This is why I am calling it out now while there is still time before these vaccines expire,” he pointed out.
In January, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the country has so far secured $800 million or P40 billion worth of loan financing from multilateral lenders to finance its booster shots.
“If we don’t use these vaccines, we will have wasted the Filipino taxpayers’ money. It’s money the Philippines can’t afford to waste,” Concepcion said.
Concepcion has repeatedly flagged the low booster uptake in the country, as he proposed that “fully vaccinated” be redefined only as individuals who have received their booster dose.
“By the second half of the year, the majority of the population will have waning immunity. If cases rise, we will lock down again. And if the conflict in Ukraine drags on, we will lock down in the midst of rising commodity prices and logjams in the supply chain,” Concepcion warns.
“Unless we finish all the vaccines in stock and booster everybody that needs it, we risk going back to square one by year end,” he added.
Less than 15 percent of schoolchildren in the Philippines, or about three in every 20, can read simple texts in large part due to the longest schools closure of more than 70 weeks as of the middle of February caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said in a report.
The latest Unicef assessment translates to a learning poverty—defined by the World Bank as the share of 10-year-olds who cannot read or understand a simple story—of more than 85 percent, which is slightly better than the World Bank estimate of as high as 90 percent in November of last year.
Learning poverty in 2019, or before the pandemic happened, was 69.5 percent, according to the World Bank.
“We urgently call for the full resumption of face-to-face learning in areas under alert level 1. We already have most elements in place to enable our full recovery in 2022. The biggest piece missing is our education sector. More than the foregone economic activity, we are concerned for the learning and future productivity of our children. Under alert level 1, children are allowed to engage in leisure and recreational activities for all indoor and outdoor venues, but the most important activity of children—going to school and learning fully—continues to be restricted,” according to Chua.
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