A National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) official emphasized the importance of getting booster shots as the Philippine is set to reopen its borders to travelers from all countries starting next month.

During the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing, Kezia Rosario, co-lead of the National Vaccination Operations Center, stressed the importance of getting booster shots as many other countries are still experiencing a surge in COVID-19.

"With that comes, with the opening up of our borders, we must be able to protect our constituents. So that’s why our call of action is for us to give our booster doses," she said.

"As we know, the booster doses give additional protection because we know that after the primary dose series, this wanes over a certain amount of time, so we need to preserve the level of protection," said Rosario.

"That’s why we really encourage our economic workforce to have their booster doses. This is one way to protect ourselves even though we are opening up our economy and also opening up our borders," she added.

Butch Ong, OCTA Research fellow said the COVID-19 cases in the country is expected to decrease to below 500 per day by April if there is no new COVID-19 variant that will enter the country.

"We hope by Holy Week our daily new cases will decrease to less than 500. But our reproduction number now has slightly increased. It is around .26 – but that’s still quite good," he said.

"We hope that by April we will steady to below 500 level. Of course we are assuming that there is no new variant of concern that will enter the country," he added. Robina Asido/DMS