MANILA— Over 90 percent of health care workers are willing to get booster shots against COVID-19 if proven effective and recommended by experts, according to a recent survey by the Department of Health.

The poll was conducted by the agency from Sept. 15 to 21, with 10,525 respondents, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

But without experts' endorsement on the usage of third doses despite reports of the waning efficacy of anti-virus jabs over time, the number of those willing to get booster shots fell to 50 percent.

"'Pag tinignan ho natin, talaga pong pinaniniwalaan naman po ang science and evidence among our health care workers," Vergeire said.

(If we look at it, our health-care workers truly believe in science and evidence.)

"Kailangan lang pong ipaliwanag sa kanila nang mas maayos. But definitely hindi tayo sarado sa booster. We also would like to recommend that but we need to complete the evidence," she added.

(We just need to explain it better to them. But definitely we are not closing our doors on booster [shots]...)

Vergeire stressed there was still no sufficient evidence that a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine could provide complete protection against the respiratory illness.

"We can't guarantee these third doses will really protect our health care workers," she said.

Should it prove otherwise, Vergeire noted the agency had already allocated funds for booster shots among medical professionals and the immunocompromised.

In the same online forum, Food and Drug Administration Director General Eric Domingo said the agency did not see any increase in breakthrough infections after vaccination.

Breakthrough cases refer to patients who contracted COVID-19 after more than 14 days of receiving the jab.

"At this time, wala naman tayong nakikita na nagwa-wane 'yung protection ng mga vaccine (we have not seen that vaccine protection has waned)," he said.

Out of 20.3 million fully vaccinated Filipinos, only 516 had breakthrough infections, the FDA earlier said.

[LINK: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/08/21/fda-reports-516-covid-breakthrough-infections]

Among breakthrough cases, more than 30 were recorded after 5 months. All patients with breakthrough infections after 5 months were given Sinovac doses, Domingo said.

After 3 to 4 months of vaccination, more than 90 breakthrough infections were logged, in which patients had received the Sinovac and AstraZeneca jabs, he added.

"So, wala pa tayong nakikitang dahilan para sabihin na bumababa ang protection rate at kung kailangan na ng booster shots at this time for the general public," Domingo said.

(So there's no reason for us to say that the protection rate is going down and if we need booster shots at this time for the general public.)

This comes as vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Friday the country was considering giving booster shots to health care workers by November or December.

Video courtesy of the DOH