THE country’s vaccine czar said that Baguio will roll out its booster shots by the end of the month.
Carlito Galvez Jr., National Task Force against COVID-29 chief implementor, said that they will start with the medical frontliners followed by immunocompromised senior citizens and individuals.
In a press conference here with Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who is also the country’s contact tracing czar, Galvez said that they are looking at November 29, 30, and December 1 as the dates for the booster shots in Baguio.
Galvez said that nationwide, they plan to give booster shots or a third COVID-19 jab to at least 50 million Filipinos.
He said that they will still give out the guidelines for the booster shots this week.
Galvez initially said that the booster shot would be homologous to the first two shots given, meaning if you were given Sinovac in your first two shots, you will also be given Sinovac for your booster shot.
He said that the incoming vaccines will be used for the booster shots, coming mostly from China, Japan and Germany.
Galvez and Magalong witnessed the jabbing of Baguio children 12 to 17 years old last Friday.
Galvez said that they have been aggressively inoculating the youth and other Filipinos.
He added that last Thursday, they had the most number of vaccinations made with more than 1.119 million doses given.
In the past three days, they reached three million doses, he said.
Magalong said that Baguio is well ahead of other cities in its vaccination program.
He said that about 88 percent of the targeted population have already been jabbed with their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines.
Magalong also said that more than 70 percent have had their complete dose and that the city hopes to accomplish 100 percent of the targeted 281,000 by year-end.
Based on the November 3 data of the City Health Services Office, 195,387 have had their complete dose while 52,929 already had a first dose.
The targeted population was based on the 70 percent population of 366,000 total population.
By Frank Cimatu | November 12, 2021
