With the rollout of booster doses apparently slow, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio reminded Dabawenyos to get their booster shots to prevent a severe or critical case of Covid-19 disease.
“Pahinumdum lang ko na hinay ang inyong pagkuha sa inyuhang booster shots. Puwede na niyong kuhaon ang iynong ikatulong bakuna sa Covid-19 dinha sa atoang vaccination centers. Aron kung kita matakdan, kay matakdan man gyud ta, dili ta mahimong severe ug critical case nga manginahanglan ta ug hospital. Kung magkasakit ta anaa ra ta sa atoang mga panimalay,” Mayor Sara said during the rally of Hugpong Ng Pagbabago (HNP) and Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (HTL) in Davao City on Thursday.
The mayor said getting fully vaccinated and boosted will help keep hospitals from overcrowding with Covid-19 patients and the city to avoid lockdown.
“Ang importante man gud sa atoa aron dili ta maglockdown, dili magsige ug sarado ug abli ang syudad o isa ka lugar, kung ang mga hospital mapuno ang ilahang ICU, mahurot ang ilahang gamit, ug mahurot ang duty sa mga doktor ug atoang mga nurses maong kinahanglan nato ang booster shots or ikatulong bakuna sa Covid-19,” she said.
On April 28, 2022 the Department of Health (DOH) issued an advisory that boosters help protect against Omicron-BA.2.12. This is after a traveler who tested positive for Covid-19 after having mild symptoms.
The DOH, through its Center for Health Development (CHD) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), recently detected Omicron-BA.2.12. It is a sublineage of the currently circulating Omicron variant which has been recently flagged by the United States Center for Disease Control (US-CDC) to be observed in increasing Covid-19 cases in the United States from two weeks ago.
The DOH surveillance systems detected BA.2.12 in a 52-year-old Finnish female who arrived from Finland last April 2, 2022. The case was not required to undergo routine isolation at a quarantine facility since she was fully vaccinated and arrived asymptomatic. The case then traveled to a university in Quezon City and then to Baguio City to conduct seminars. Nine days after her arrival in the country, she experienced mild symptoms such as headache and sore throat. She then tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 via Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) the next day. Upon detection of this confirmed Covid-19 case, the local epidemiology and surveillance unit (LESU) performed contact tracing. Nine asymptomatic close contacts were identified. Two of them were tested and found to be negative.
The case has finished her 7-day isolation and has recovered and been discharged. The patient returned to her home country on April 21, 2022.
The DOH is also imploring the public to get boosted ASAP as immunity is proven to wane over time. All eligible immunocompromised individuals (ICPs) are likewise encouraged to already get their second booster or 4th dose.
