The Negros Oriental Provincial Health Office (PHO) is now giving the COVID-19 bivalent vaccines as regular boosters for those who have not received the additional doses yet, an official said yesterday.

“We are now administering these bivalent boosters not only for health workers but also for those belonging to A2 and A3 sectors,” PHO chief, Dr. Liland Estacion told the Philippine News Agency.

These vaccines, originally as a third booster shot specifically to fight the highly transmissible Omicron variant, are now available at all the hospitals in Dumaguete City, she said.

Walk-ins are accepted and there are no specific priorities for the sectors mentioned above, she added.

Estacion said the Department of Health recently announced that the bivalent vaccines can now be given as regular first and second booster shots in the absence of the regular ones which the province had run out of in the previous months.

She lamented that many people still are not keen on getting their boosters despite repeated appeals from health officials on the importance of these additional doses.

As of August 3, records at the PHO showed that only 403 individuals got their booster shots out of the 1,800 bivalent doses given last week.

The PHO chief appealed to the people to avail these vaccines while they are still given for free. (PNA)