Go Negosyo chairperson Joey Concepcion has pressed the inclusion of private hospitals among those that would be allowed to buy bivalent vaccines against Covid-19.

Concepcion said bivalent vaccines can be sold at cost and administered by healthcare professionals as part of corporate social responsibility efforts of hospitals.

The proposal seeks to allow anyone to receive the vaccines, even those who fall outside of the government's vaccination priority-queueing system.

The United States Food and Drug Administration said citizens can be continuously protected through the use of bivalent Covid-19 vaccine booster doses.

Bivalent Covid-19 vaccines are called that because they include a component of the original virus and the Omicron variant to provide broad protection against Covid-19.

Concepcion earlier sent in a letter to the Department of Health recommendations from members of the Advisory Council of Experts or ACE, which is composed of the country's foremost authorities on medicine, public health, epidemiology, economics, research and data analytics.

"We remain the government's ally in its vaccination efforts," Concepcion said.

Concepcion and the ACE members' proposal seeks to address the lack of Certificate of Product Registration of the bivalent vaccines and help the DoH achieve higher vaccine accessibility and coverage.

Already, the hospitals belonging to the Metro Pacific group have committed to the plan to procure the vaccines and sell them at cost and with a minimal administration fee.

Dr. Benjamin Co, chief medical officer of Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings, believes that the other private hospitals' capability to do the same will depend on their manpower capacity and vaccine storage and logistics, as well as approval from the DoH and the LGUs.