The Ministry of Public Health has issued details of the latest criteria for healthcare workers ready to receive the US-donated Pfizer jabs. Eligibility now includes those who have received only one dose of a vaccine so far, and those who are yet to receive any shots. Related workers other than doctors and nurses are also eligible.
The new criteria provides a greater coverage compared to the previous occasion, during which the the US-donated mRNA jabs were offered only as a third booster dose for healthcare workers already fully vaccinated with two doses of Sinovac.
With this latest guideline, a third booster dose will be offered to healthcare workers who have already received two doses of either Sinovac or Sinopharm jabs, while health workers who have only received the first dose of any COVID-19 vaccine can choose a Pfizer-BioNTech jab for their second dose.
Health workers who have yet to receive any COVID-19 vaccine will be given the full two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, three weeks apart, while unvaccinated health workers previously infected with COVID-19 will get only one dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, one month after their recovery.
The new guidelines apply to frontline health workers nationwide who are in contact with COVID-19 patients, including medical students and all kinds of staff in outpatient wards, inpatient wards, Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) clinics, emergency rooms, ICU facilities, and field hospitals.
Workers in related fields such as lab workers, disease investigators, officials at isolation centers, as well as any staff related to COVID-19 patient care such as ambulance drivers and gurney staff who are also included in this plan.
Some workers, however, will be excluded from this consignment of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, namely those who have already received two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, those who have received the full Sinovac-AstraZeneca vaccine regimen, and those who have already taken AstraZeneca as a third booster dose following two doses of Sinovac.
The Immunization Promotion Subcommittee says they still don’t recommend people from the groups mentioned, get another shot of the vaccine at the moment. (NNT)
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