100,000 Filipinos got additional shots versus coronavirus — DoH

More than 100,000 Filipinos have received additional shots against the coronavirus, according to Philippine health authorities.

The country had injected 102,102 additional doses as of Nov. 24, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told a virtual news briefing on Thursday.

She said 69,971 health workers and 21,139 seniors have received booster shots. Almost 11,000 seriously ill people have received their third dose, she added.

“All our regions have already started giving booster or additional doses,” Ms. Vergeire said.

The government on Monday started giving third doses to seniors and seriously ill people after almost half of its adult population got fully vaccinated.

The country is struggling to vaccinate at least 50% of its adult population by year-end after managing to contain a spike in coronavirus cases triggered by a highly contagious virus variant.

The Department of Health (DoH) on Thursday reported the lowest active coronavirus cases this year at 17,796, as it logged 975 new infections.

This brought the total to 2.83 million, it said in a bulletin.

The death toll hit 47,875 after 193 more patients died, while recoveries increased by 1,029 to 2.76 million, it said.

Of the active cases, 52.7% were mild, 5.4% did not show symptoms, 14.4% were severe, 21.49% were moderate and 6% were critical.

The Health department said 17 duplicates had been removed from the tally, 15 of which were recoveries, while 181 recoveries were relisted as deaths. Two laboratories did not operate on Nov. 23, while three laboratories failed to submit data.

It added that 30% of intensive care units in the Philippines were occupied, while the rate for Metro Manila was 29%.

The Philippines remained at low risk from the coronavirus.

The country’s average daily attack rate was moderate at 1.55 cases for 100,000 people, DoH said in a separate statement. “DoH data showed a further decline in the average daily cases in the recent week.”

But it was too early to say that the country had contained the pandemic, Ms. Vergeire told reporters in a Viber message. “We are not going to declare this soon.”

She said Philippine health authorities were in talks with the World Health Organization about “the process and the determinants of disease control or containment.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza