Expiry date on vax cards ‘good strategy’ to push booster shot

MANILA – Placing an expiration date on vaccination cards would be a “good strategy” to encourage the fully vaccinated to receive their booster shots, a health official said Thursday.

National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) chief Myrna Cabotaje said the action would require “stricter checking” of the vaccination cards, which contain details about the shot received and the dates these were administered.

“Yung ating mga nagche-check, kasi basta pinakita mo ‘yung vaccine card, hindi naman tinitignan kung sa iyo, hindi naman tinitignan kung (The checkers do not inspect if the vaccine card is yours or) how late your vaccination was, so we might go into more detailed enforcement,” she said in a radio interview.

To ramp up the administration of booster shots, Cabotaje said the Department of Health is also looking into the possibility of including booster dose as a requirement for a person to be considered “fully vaccinated” against Covid-19.

Currently, the term “fully vaccinated” refers to individuals who have completed their primary series of Covid-19 vaccines, following the World Health Organization definition.

“The studies are being discussed, ano pa ‘yung pwede nating gawin para ma-encourage ‘yung ating mga mamamayang magpa-booster, especially ‘yung ating mga vulnerable sector ng ating society (what else could be done to encourage our citizens to get their booster [shots], especially the vulnerable sectors of our society),” she said.

As of March 29, there are 142,006,755 Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country.

A total of 71,039,547 individuals have received at least one dose while 65,804,988 are fully vaccinated.

The number of fully vaccinated who have received their booster shots already reached 11,954,585.