Governors vow to support booster rollout

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s league of governors yesterday vowed to support the appeal of President Marcos to better implement the booster shot vaccine drive against COVID-19.

In a statement sent to ABS-CBN News, League of Provinces of the Philippines national president Presbitero Velasco Jr. said the “league of the governors are in full support of the appeal of President Marcos Jr. to exert best efforts to implement the booster campaign rollout.”

“The booster shots will prevent the surge of COVID-19 infection, which is evident from the steady increase of infections in the past days,” the Marinduque governor said.

The governors’ league believed that booster shots would improve the body’s response to COVID-19 while complying with minimum health protocols like the wearing of masks in enclosed and outdoor areas.

“The additional vaccination to improve the immune system will be coupled with determined policy of the provinces to comply with wearing of masks in enclosed areas and in outdoor areas except when persons engage in outdoor sports and exercise and when a person is two to three meters away from another person,” Velasco said.

“Infectious disease experts say the closer people are to someone infected with COVID-19 and the more time people spend in enclosed areas, the higher the risk that the virus will spread from one person to another,” he added.

The league made the statement after Marcos in a virtual speech last Friday appealed to local chief executives to improve the booster rollout at the local level to give way to a safer resumption of face-to-face classes and to prevent any more lockdowns amid the threat of more infectious subvariants of the coronavirus.

Marcos expressed openness to making the wearing of masks optional if the booster rollout proves successful and if cases go down due to better population immunity.

He made the call as the country’s vaccination drive plateaued to around 200,000 jabs daily since March as disclosed by the Department of Health during last Friday’s Laging Handa public briefing.

Meanwhile, all regions in the country have yet to give booster shots to at least 50 percent of their population.

Over 71 million Filipinos have received their primary vaccine series against COVID-19, of which only 15.2 million received booster shots, according to figures at the DOH vaccination dashboard.