ILOILO City – This southern city is still far from achieving the Alert Level 0 status because of the low booster uptake against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
According to Mayor Jerry Treñas, the city must have at least 70 percent of its target population given booster shots for it to be qualified for a lowest alert level status.
So far, the city’s booster rate accomplishment is only around 36 percent, he lamented.
A booster shot is an additional dose of a vaccine given after the protection provided by the original shots has begun to decrease over time.
A COVID-19 booster helps people maintain strong protection from severe coronavirus disease, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
Iloilo City is currently under Alert Level 1. It has 34 active cases of COVID-19 left, as of April 4.
Data from DOH Region 6 showed 36.81 percent of the 55,328 target population aged 60 years old and above in Iloilo City have already received their booster shots while 44.74 percent of the 269,621 target population aged 18 to 59 years old also received their booster shot, as of April 3.
The total target population of the city is 324,949.
Health secretary Francisco Duque III said last month experts and government advisers were looking into the possibility of deescalating the country to pandemic Alert Level 0.
“Siling nila maistoryahan ta ang Alert Level 0 kon mapataas ta aton booster rate. Ang booster (rate) required for Alert Level 0 is at least 70 percent. Kon malagas ta tani ‘ni ang 70 percent then pwede na kita ka apelar para sa Alert Level 0,” Treñas.
Based on government guidelines, COVID-19 booster shots may be given to adults at least three months after the second dose of a two-dose vaccine, or at least two months after the administration of a one-dose vaccine.
Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion earlier said the country needs 70 to 80 percent of the population with boosters before it could get out of the emergency health status.
Treñas appealed to fully vaccinated Ilonggos to already get their booster shots.
“Ang efficacy sang aton bakuna nagapanaog especially if we you were vaccinated with Sinovac kay ti sa tanan nga bakuna ang Sinovac ang pinakanubu sa efficacy,” the city mayor said.
Nationwide, 33 million Filipinos eligible for COVID-19 booster shots have yet to receive the additional vaccine dose, according to Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
Only 11.8 million out of 45 million Filipinos who are already eligible for booster shots have so far received an additional COVID-19 vaccine jab, she said.
DOH conducted “small studies or surveys” to identify why some fully vaccinated people are not taking booster shots.
Vergeire said the DOH found out that some people believe they already have enough protection against COVID-19 because they have been fully vaccinated and because of natural immunity from coronavirus infection.
“But I just want to inform everybody that immunity wanes,” said Vergeire./PN