The government’s COVID-19 vaccination program has “plateaued” to 200,000 daily jabs since March, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the DOH to ramp up COVID booster uptake as virus cases rise and immunity wanes, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
All regions have yet to administer booster shots to 50 percent of their target population, said Vergeire, DOH spokesperson and interim chairperson of the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC).
Around 895,000 health workers, elderly, immunocompromised, and persons with comorbidities have gotten a second booster shot, she said.
Metro Manila is the closest to reaching the target, having vaccinated 43 percent of its target population, Vergeire added.
“We will be mobilizing and asking help from the DOH, DOLE, DILG and other agencies so the approach will still be whole of government,” she said.
The Philippines has logged 1,936 new COVID-19 cases with the active tally reaching 11,370 cases while the positivity rate also rose.
The daily tally is the highest in over 4 months or since Feb. 18. This is the highest number of new cases in a day after 2,232 were reported on Feb. 18.
The new cases bring the nationwide tally to 3,713,131, based on the latest figures posted by the DOH.
As of Tuesday, the Philippines has fully vaccinated 70.8 million individuals, of whom 15.2 million have received an additional dose, according to Vergeire.
The DOH meanwhile clarified on Friday that the latest sequencing results from June 29 to July 4 detected the following Omicron subvariants: seven BA.4 cases; 140 BA.5 cases; and 20 BA.2.12.1 cases.
On July 5, the DOH released information that there were only 43 BA.5 cases. The difference of that number from the current count which is 140 is explained by the reclassification of 97 cases formerly classified as “other sublineages.” The 97 have since been clarified to also be under BA.5, hence their count was added to the 43 to arrive at 140.
The 140 newly sequenced BA.5 cases have the following clinical presentations: four are still in isolation; 129 were asymptomatic and have recovered; while seven still have their outcomes being verified.
Their vaccination status is as follows: sixteen 16 were fully vaccinated, three were unvaccinated, and 121 still have their status being verified.
These 140 newly sequenced BA.5 cases were reported from the following regions: 99 from Region VI; 21 from NCR; 7 from Region IV-A; 5 from Region I; 1 each from Regions III, V, VII, VIII, X, IV-B, and CAR; and 1 Returning Overseas Filipino (ROF).
To date, the grand total of BA.5 cases detected in the Philippines is 233.