All adults will be eligible for a second COVID-19 booster shot from Wednesday, while teenagers will be eligible for their first booster shot, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony announced on Monday.
Dr. Anthony, during his daily COVID-19 update, explained that people’s protection from the coronavirus wanes months after they have been vaccinated with their original or primary doses.
As such, booster shots have been offered to adults since last year. But as the pandemic progresses and more transmissible variants continue to emerge, the Health Minister explained that the government has decided to offer a second booster dose to adults.
“As of June 1, one of the things the ministry would be doing is offer a second booster dose.
“For persons who want that, they will be able to do that at any one of our vaccine sites,” Dr. Anthony said.
For adults vaccinated with two-dose vaccines and have taken a booster shot (or a third shot), this will mean that they can get a fourth shot.
For those individuals who took a single dose vaccine (for example, the Johnson and Johnson jab) and a booster shot, the second booster shot will be their third shot.
Importantly, he also announced that for the first-time, teenagers can start receiving their booster shots too.
Individuals aged 12 to 17 have been receiving the Pfizer vaccine exclusively and earlier attempts at providing a booster shot to them were stalled because of low vaccination uptake.
After months of delays due to supply shortages, the Health Minister also noted that COVID-19 vaccines for children aged five to 11 years will be distributed from the second week of June. This will be the first time that these children will receive vaccine protection against COVID-19.
Currently, some 441,994 adults have received at least one COVID-19 dose; 341,574 have received first and second doses. A total of 65,145 adults have taken their booster doses.
Meanwhile, 34,691 teenagers have taken their first Pfizer shot while 25,416 teenagers have taken their second doses.