Special Vax Drive to be Held in Cebu Next Week

Department of Health (DOH) announced Friday a special vaccination drive to Cebu province next week to further strengthen the country’s vaccination coverage.

The vaccination drive will run from March 29 to 31, according to DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire during a Malacañang press briefing, who added that teams will also be deployed in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to improve the vaccination situation of. both provinces.

“Abangan po ng ating mga kababayan, sa mga lugar na iyan pupunta po ang ating mga deployed teams para matulungan natin ang mga regions na ito upang tumaas po ang antas ng pagbabakuna, (To our fellowmen, team will be deployed in these places in order to help the regions in improving their vaccination status,” Vergeire said.

The health undersecretary also reiterated that bosster shots will be able to help the public in protecting themselves from COVID-19 as more transmittable variants such as the Omicron variant is still present.

Only 12 million out of an eligible 44 million Filipinos have been inoculated with their booster shots, Vergeire added.

Redefining “fully vaccinated”

DOH is discussing with health experts if there is a need to redefine the term “fully vaccinated individuals” as according to Vergeire, experts say the term is inappropriate.

“According to our experts they were saying na mukhang hindi talaga appropriate, (According to our experts, they were saying that it seems to be really inappropriate,” Vergeire said.

The health undersecretary then said that they are looking into practices other nations are doing, citing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an example as the CDC did not redefine “fully vaccinated individuals,” opting to place “updated” or “up-to-date” in their vaccination cards. (GFB)