Herbosa vows to acquire more bivalent COVID-19 jabs

Health Secretary Ted Herbosa on Thursday vowed to acquire more bivalent COVID-19 vaccines as he admits that the country currently does not have enough supply.

In an ambush interview, the new chief of the Department of Health (DOH) said that the more than 390,000 doses of bivalent vaccines donated by Lithuania have already been rolled out, mostly in the National Capital Region (NCR).

“May programa tayo ngayon to acquire as many of the bivalent vaccines… Kulang ‘yung 390,000, we need to get more,” Herbosa said.

(We have a program now to acquire as many of the bivalent vaccines... The 390,000 doses are not enough, we need to get more.)

He, however, acknowledged that there are “technical difficulties” in obtaining the jabs that give protection against the original COVID-19 strain, SARS-CoV-2, and Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

“Syempre mahirap, may mga technical difficulties to acquiring the bivalents pero nandiyan tayo. We’re trying to get it and I will push for getting more of these, especially sa mga vulnerable, sa healthcare workers, kasi nagwe-wane na ‘yung dati nilang bakuna so kailangang mabigyan na sila ng bivalent. We’ll try to acquire that, promise ko ‘yan,” Herbosa added.

(Of course it is difficult as there are technical difficulties to acquiring the bivalent jabs, but we are there. We're trying to get it and I will push for getting more of these, especially for the vulnerable, for the healthcare workers, because their previous vaccine is waning, so they need to receive the bivalent. We'll try to acquire that, I promise that.)

Currently, only adults belonging to A1 (healthcare workers) and A2 (senior citizens) categories are allowed to receive the Pfizer bivalent vaccine as third booster dose. They need to wait at least four months after receiving their second booster shot before they take the next one.

At least 78.4 million Filipinos are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 23.8 million individuals have received at least a first booster dose. —VAL, GMA Integrated News