Manila: A senior health official urged eligible Filipinos to get themselves vaccinated against COVID-19 as the country confirmed the fourth case of the imported Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant on Monday night.
While receiving 1,187,550 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay City aboard Air Hong Kong Flight LD 456 carrying, Dr. Ma. Paz Corrales, medical consultant of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 stressed that "vaccination is an added protection for all the Filipinos."
"We urge more (people) to get vaccinated in preparation for its possible spread in the country," Corrales told the Philippines News Agency (PNA).
Dr Corrales stressed that those who have yet to receive their primary doses and those who are now qualified for booster doses should now get their respective COVID-19 shots.
The highly transmissible Omicron variant is now spreading in the US, UK, and Australia, and superseding Delta in other countries.
The new shipment is part of the government-procured Pfizer vaccines through the funding of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
"We were able to jab [over] 47 million Filipinos already despite the onslaught of the recent typhoon. We are all trying our best, especially in the typhoon-stricken areas to vaccinate as many Filipinos as we can," Corrales said.
200 million vaccines delivered
The Philippines breached the Two vaccine shipments landed on Monday, bringing to 200 million the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses in the country.
Deliveries have reached 202,660,355 — including the 587,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine donated by Germany that arrived Monday afternoon and the 1,187,550 doses of government-procured Pfizer-BioNTech jabs that landed in the evening, said 'vaccine czar’ Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.
COVID-19 vaccinations for children
Meanwhile inoculation of children from ages five to 11 years has yet to start, health officials said. In an advisory, the Department of Health (DOH) said preparations are underway for the vaccine rollout of the youngest age group.
The National Vaccination Operations Center will announce the vaccination schedule "as soon as COVID-19 vaccines suitable for the ages 5 to 11 and its appropriate syringes become available", the DOH said.
"While waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines to be rolled out or this pediatric group, we recommend that children complete their routine immunisation to be protected from more contagious and fatal diseases, like measles, rubella, tetanus, and diphtheria," the advisory read.
The government is eyeing the vaccination of at least 13.5 million children aged 5 to 11 against COVID-19.
