1.3M Moderna doses for booster shots, minors

MANILA – The pediatric age group and healthcare workers qualified for booster shots will benefit from the government-procured Moderna vaccine that arrived Tuesday morning.

National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. led the officials who welcomed the 1,353,800 doses of the US-made jabs.

An advisory was released Monday night for the administration of booster shots.

“It will be starting this Wednesday, 17 November. We are expecting also that our seniors and our people with comorbidities ay baka next week magsimula na rin tayo (maybe by next week, we can start already),” Galvez said.

Vaccination for minors aged 12 to 17 years is ongoing nationwide.

As of Tuesday, 124,914,000 Covid-19 vaccines have been delivered to the country, both procured and donated.

From the total 70,677,7771 doses deployed, 31,868,120 have received full doses.

The 14-day daily average from November 2 to 16 stood at 811,501 doses.

“Sa ngayon, we are happy to say na na-breach na natin ang (Right now, we are happy to say that we have already breached the) 70 million administered vaccines, another milestone, and we are expecting also that we will ramp up our vaccination in the next few days,” Galvez said.

For the rest of November, Galvez said about 16 million doses are expected for delivery and will be allocated for the rest of the year.

The vaccines that will arrive in December will be used for first-quarter vaccination next year and for booster shots.

Galvez was joined at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 by Edward Vincent O’Bryan, US Embassy Manila political counselor; Zuellig Pharma Market managing director Jannette Jakosalem; and Department of Health Director Ariel Valencia.