ILOILO City – This southern city has started giving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) booster shots to fully vaccinated frontline healthcare workers.
Eligible to receive booster doses are those who have completed their primary series or six months after getting the second dose.
According to Mayor Jerry Treñas, while the city is giving vaccines to various hospitals, several health workers queued up in the city’s various vaccination sites yesterday.
Treñas earlier said the city government would provide vaccines to hospitals and district health centers for a faster rollout.
Based on the consolidated data from the Iloilo City Vaccination Team, a total of 109 health workers have availed themselves of Pfizer booster shots on Nov. 18 in five vaccination centers here – 28 at the University of San Agustin, 26 in Megaworld, seven in SM City, 30 in Robinson’s Jaro, and 18 in Ateneo de Iloilo.
According to the Department of Health (DOH) and the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF), health workers will be followed soon by the elderly and people with comorbidities.
Under DOH Memorandum 2021-0484, healthcare workers have the option to receive a homologous or heterologous booster dose.
Homologous dose is the administration of a vaccine from the same brand used to complete the primary vaccine series while the heterologous dose uses a vaccine from a different brand.
Based on the recommended booster dose combinations for Priority Group A1 released by the DOH, they can be inoculated with the following brands, regardless of which vaccines taken in the first dose:
* Sinovac – Sinovac (homologous booster); AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna (heterologous booster)
* AstraZeneca – AstraZeneca (homologous booster but with precaution based on emergency use authorization); Pfizer and Moderna (heterologous booster)
* Pfizer – Pfizer (homologous); AstraZeneca and Moderna (heterologous)
* Moderna – Moderna (homologous); AstraZeneca and Pfizer (heterologous)
* Gamaleya Sputnik – homologous booster not yet for implementation; AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna (heterologous)
* Janssen (with at least three months interval for booster – homologous booster not yet for implementation; AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna (heterologous)./PN
