THE Department of Health (DOH) has sought the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval on providing the fourth coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine dose to senior citizens and persons with comorbidities.DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual press conference on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, that they have already applied for the amendment of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of Covid-19 vaccines to include the administration of fourth dose to the vulnerable individuals.“Meron na po tayong rekomendasyon na initial galing sa Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) tungkol po dito sa fourth dose. Ito po ay nairecommenda ng ating VEP sa mga senior citizens at immunocompromised,” she said.(We already have an initial recommendation from the Vaccine Expert Panel with regards to the fourth dose. The VEP recommended it for senior citizens and those immunocompromised.)“Ito po ay napag-usapan na rin sa all experts group, inaantay na lang po natin, nagsubmit na po ang DOH ng application sa FDA para po sa ating amendment ng EUA for this fourth doses (This has been discussed by all experts group and the DOH has already submitted an application to the FDA for the EUA amendment and we are just waiting). So we will wait for the decision of the FDA on this and after that we will discuss for possible implementation,” she added.Experts earlier said that the protection of senior citizens and immunocompromised persons, who are more prone in getting severely or critically ill due to Covid-19, wane a few months after getting Covid-19 vaccination.Vergeire said they are also preparing for the possible yearly inoculation of the eligible individuals.“It has long been discussed and have been planned for…If ever darating po tayo na may kumpletong ebidensya na para po dito sa yearly vaccination ng Covid-19, ang gobyerno natin ay magiging handa para maibigay po ito sa mga kababayan (If we have complete evidence to support the yearly vaccination, the government will be ready to provide this to the Filipino citizens) for all of those eligible in our population in the coming years,” she said.At present, a total of 65,248,130 individuals in the country have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, 70,384,218 have received at least one dose, while 11,576,7397 already had booster doses.A total of 6,861,671 senior citizens also received one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, while 6,572,319 were fully vaccinated.The number of fully vaccinated senior citizens represents 75 percent of the target population.For the target individuals with comorbidities, 98.18 percent have received the first dose, while 93 percent were fully vaccinated. (SunStar Philippines)