DOH: COVID-19 response actions unchanged as new DOH chief yet to be named

The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday said the agency would continue to implement the current COVID-19 response protocols "until new directives from [President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos] come in."

“Everything is status quo,” the Health Department said in a statement.

“The country’s COVID-19 response actions, along with actions for all other non-COVID health matters, continue through senior DOH officials supervising specific bureaus, offices, and units," the DOH added.

"We await and are ready for the announcement of the next Secretary of Health,” it added.

Meanwhile, the National COVID-19 Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) and vaccination sites would continue with current operations in administering vaccines and boosters to eligible populations under the leadership of Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.

Vergeire replaced ex-NVOC chairperson Myrna Cabotaje, who finished her term on June 30.

“[The] DOH and NVOC are currently focusing efforts to ramp-up the rollout of vaccines for our current priority groups through granular and localized analysis of areas with low vaccine coverage of 1st boosters and high numbers of unvaccinated,” the department said.

“This is to ensure that strategies implemented to increase coverage are tailor fitted to best suit a given area or region,” it added.

According to the latest report from NVOC, at least 801 individuals from the 12 to 17 age group have been given booster doses as of June 29.

All regions, on the other hand, have fully vaccinated more than 40% of their A2 priority group or senior citizens.

“BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) has the lowest coverage with only 46% of the target population for A2 being fully vaccinated. On the other hand, Region 2 and CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region) hold the highest coverage of fully vaccinated A2s at 92.8% and 90.7% respectively,” the Health Department said.

As to how many COVID-19 vaccines expired in June, the DOH said it was “closely coordinating with the proper offices to collate the final report on the number of doses expiring soon.”

The DOH, together with the NVOC, emphasized that they were focusing efforts to ramp up the rollout of vaccines for current priority groups and to prioritize areas and specific age groups with a high number of unvaccinated and those yet to receive their first booster. — DVM, GMA News