KALIBO, Aklan – The province of Aklan will rollout booster shots of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to fully vaccinated frontline workers and health professionals.
Since March, 13,807 individuals under the A1 (healthcare workers) priority population group have received their two doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
Like other vaccines, levels of protection may begin to reduce over time. The booster dose will help people maintain their level of immunity or protection against the coronavirus.
Booster vaccine doses are available for people most at risk to COVID-19. This includes frontline workers in COVID-19 referral hospitals, hospitals catering to COVID-19 cases, quarantine/isolation facilities, remaining hospitals, government-owned community-based primary care facilities, remaining healthcare facilities thru local government units (LGU) and closed healthcare facilities institutions.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Cornelio Cuachon, Jr. said booster shots have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for people who have completed their vaccine series.
The booster shot of the same brand or a homologous or comparable type of dose is given to healthcare workers six months after they completed their two doses.
The government allows a “mix and match approach” for individuals to choose a different vaccine for their booster or than the one they got with.
Meanwhile, the province has so far inoculated 4,989 individuals aged between 17 to 12. Of this figure, 209 minors have comorbidities.
The pediatric A3 priority group vaccination was launched on Nov. 5, 2021 at Dr. Rafael S. Memorial Hospital in Kalibo, Aklan.
More than 600 minors received their first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine during the provincial launching./PN
