MANILA – The San Juan city government has started rolling out the second booster shot against COVID-19 to health care workers (A1) and senior citizens (A2) on Friday.

More than 2,000 residents signed up for second booster shots since Thursday.

“In less than 24 hours, more than 2,000 have registered. Ibig sabihin na naintindihan na nila ang kahalagahan ng second booster shot,” Zamora told reporters in an interview.

The city government has fully vaccinated about 3,000 medical front-liners and 15,000 senior citizens but is still gathering data as to how many of them have been administered with the first booster dose.

“If all of them will register, we can give five days for the vaccination of our medical front-liners, and for our senior citizens. It would probably take around two weeks to complete their second booster shots,” Zamora said, partly in Filipino.

The mayor reminded qualified vaccinees to register via the San Juan City Vaccine Registration portal – https://vaxreg.sanjuancity.gov.ph/vaccine_registration/public/ – as they are not allowing walk-ins to avoid overcrowding and to make sure only the qualified priority sectors will get the second booster shots.

Walk-ins are allowed only for the primary series.

So far, only V-Mall in Greenhills is open for booster shots from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which can be extended to 9 p.m. if needed.

Primary series and first booster shots may also be availed of at V-Mall, San Juan City Hall, Santolan Town Plaza, and Puregold Agora along N. Domingo Street.

Vaccinees must bring a valid identification card and their vaccination cards.

“Just in case, if we will see that the numbers will go up in the next few days, we can open other sites for inoculation,” Zamora said.

Zamora also disclosed that jabs nearing expiration date have been donated to the provinces, particularly 50,000 doses to Isabela and Camarines Sur.

“Noong mga panahon na iyon, wala na pong mababakunahan sa San Juan, maski ‘yung mga taga ibang lugar na dito magpapabakuna ay wala na po masyadong pumupunta so dinonate po natin ang mga bakunang iyon para mapakinabangan,” Zamora said.

San Juan City was the fastest local government unit in Metro Manila to fully vaccinate its target, owing to its small population of about 122,000. Philippine News Agency