A party-list lawmaker on Monday said local government units (LGUs) with online vaccination registration should no longer require old registrants to sign-up and schedule their booster shots.
BHW Party-list Representative Angelica Natasha Co said the database should have the information of those who have already received their primary doses.
Co said LGUs should either allow all those previously registered to walk in at the vaccination centers or provide separate lanes for walk-ins and newly-registered.
“Bakit kailangan pang mag-register ulit online para sa booster shots ang mga nakatapos na ng primary doses? ‘Di ba nakasaad naman sa database kung sino-sino ang mga nakatapos na sa primary doses? (Why do they need to register again online for booster shots when they are already done with their primary doses? Is the information on those who completed their primary doses not indicated in the database?),” she said.
She said the Department of Health and LGU should have the initiative to contact those who have already been registered in the past.
“If we want our people to do something, make it easy,” she said.
She said for the walk-in method, Filipinos who want to get booster shots should bring their vaccination card to determine the date of their second dose and verify it with the DOH-LGU in their database.
Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier said the country’s vaccine experts panel will officially recommend the administration of booster dose three months after receiving the second dose amid the threat of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
He said this would be applied to all Covid-19 vaccine brands that were approved as boosters.
“And also, I’d like to underscore the importance that whether the surge would be Alpha, Beta, Delta–now we’re looking at Omicron, still the same–minimum public health standards and vaccination,” he said.
Current guidelines require adults to get boosters six months after their second dose of Moderna, Sinovac Pfizer, Sputnik V, or AstraZeneca vaccine, except for the single-dose Janssen vaccine that needs just three months.
On the other hand, Duque said there is a continuous data generation on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant.
“We’re getting information from the ground. What has been the clinical outcomes with respect to the effect of vaccines on the Omicron variant,” he added, noting that more information about the newly detected variant is still needed.
Source: Philippines News Agency