Tuguegarao City, Cagayan – With Omicron subvariants now fuelling recent COVID-19 surges in the country, the national government said it plans to procure vaccines specific against the new & highly transmissible strains.
The announcement came from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. when he got his second booster dose on Wednesday, August 17, underscoring the importance of Filipinos getting booster shots for additional protection and to fight against the Omicron subvariants.
“DOH Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire recently told me, that vaccines specific against these new Omicron subvariants will soon be available. We will look into it and if it’s going to help, then we will do our best to bring them here to give them to those who need their boosters,” the President added.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, health ministries have reently approved the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to directly target Omicron and its sublineages.
Among the subvariants of the latest and most transmissible COVID-19 variant detected in the country by the Department of Health are BA.12.1, BA.2.75, BA.4 and BA.5.
Based on studies by scientists and the World Health Organization, Omicron is way faster in transmitting versus the also highly contagious and deadly Delta variant.
The strain and its substrains are also known to evade immunity from previous COVID-19 infection and 2 doses of vaccines.
At present, there are over 72 million Filipinos who are fully-vaccinated, while only more than 17 million have been given their booster shots, prompting the government to launch their “PinasLakas” mass inoculation campaign. TNF