19.7 million Pinoys received booster shots

MANILA, Philippines — At least 19.7 million Filipinos nationwide have received their booster shots against COVID, the Department of Health (DOH) reported yesterday.

“This is around 25 percent of all eligible population,” DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire told a press briefing yesterday.

The DOH had earlier set a boosters target of 30 percent or 23.4 million of the eligible population of 78 million by Oct. 8, the 100th day of the Marcos administration.

Vergeire said 3.2 million received booster shots since the PinasLakas vaccination program was launched in July.

She said more than 42,000 members of the A2 group or senior citizens have also been vaccinated.

“This has given us a cumulative accomplishment of 6.8 million plus senior citizens, equating to around 78.5 percent of the eligible senior citizens in the country... These are for the primary doses,” Vergeire said.

The PinasLakas campaign aims to reach 90 percent of senior citizens for their primary series and 50 percent of the eligible population for the first booster doses by Oct. 8.

Meanwhile, the DOH is looking at granting incentives to top-performing local government units (LGUs) in terms of giving booster shots and vaccinating senior citizens.

“We are just waiting for the approval of the budget we have submitted so we can use the money in giving out incentives to our LGUs,” Vergeire said.

She said LGUs should continue giving out incentives, such as rice, groceries or cash to vaccinees, which is considered an effective strategy to convince people to get their COVID shots.

“Hopefully, other LGUs will be doing and following this kind of incentivization for our public so they are encouraged to get vaccinated,” Vergeire said.