VACCINE czar and National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez recommended to the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) that Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), seafarers and healthcare workers (HCWs) be allowed to get their second booster dose.
In the Talk to the People of President Rodrigo Duterte, Galvez reported that overseas, the foreign employers requires that OFWs and searfarers should already have their fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines.
Galvez gave Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as examples of employers requiring a second booster dose for foreign workers that they will recruit.
At present, only individuals with serious comorbidities or are immunocompromised are the ones given a second booster dose based on the approval of the Department of Health, while to follow are those for senior citizens and healthcare workers.
However, Galvez said it is better that healthcare workers should already get their second booster dose since they deal directly with COVID-19 patients.
Galvez reasoned out that once healthcare workers are hit by COVID-19, the virus can be quickly transmitted to other people or their families, and the healthcare system in the country will weaken again.
That is why Galvez recommended that OFWs, seafarers and health workers be given their second booster dose as soon as possible.