Carers of senior citizens in the country will be included in the COVID-19 priority list.
According to Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, chairperson of the National Vaccine Operations Center (NVOC), they are now developing guidelines for this policy due to the increase in the number of fully vaccinated seniors in the country, which has reached 43%.
“We are coming up with another strategy — ‘yung A2 (senior citizens) plus one. So Ibig sabihin, senior citizen, dinala ng household member, pati ang household member babakunahan,” said Cabotaje.
Such household members must be the person taking care of the senior citizen.
Even select A3 or people with comorbidity members and their carers can be vaccinated.
To date, more than 15 million individuals have been vaccinated with their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
About 12.4 million have been fully vaccinated, or equivalent to 17.5 percent of the target population to be vaccinated.
About 20 to 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in the Philippines this August and September.
Meanwhile, 469,200 additional doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines purchased by the government and the private sector arrived this Sunday.
Carers of seniors will be vaccinated as well
Meanwhile, the DOH confirmed additional COVID-19 variants, including the very first case of the Lambda variant.
The Lambda variant was seen in a 35-year-old woman.
The DOH is still investigating whether the first case is a returning overseas Filipino.
According to the DOH, the woman was asymptomatic and recovered following the 10-day isolation period.
Meanwhile, the OCTA Research group said the new COVID-19 cases may reach 16,000 per day next week now that the COVID-19 reproduction number increase to 1.5 on Sunday.
“Sa buong Pilipinas, 1.5 reproduction number. Tumataas pa rin,” OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said in an interview on Unang Balita on Monday.
However, the National Capital Region showed improvement, OCTA fellow Guido said.
“Sa Metro Manila, hindi siya tumaas kahapon. Bumaba siya ng konti. Noong Saturday, 3,989 cases. Pero kahapon, 3,640. Kahapon mas mababa siya kaysa doon sa past three days,” he said.
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