The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said it is ready to provide pertussis booster shots for free to children and pregnant women.

This after the Philippine College of Physicians recommended to the DOH to vaccinate against pertussis infants, children, adolescents, and pregnant women first.

As of 16 March, there are 568 pertussis cases recorded where 67 cases were recorded for children aged 1 to 4 years old, 65 cases for children aged 5 to 9 years old, 24 cases for teens aged 10 to 19 years old, 16 cases for adults aged 20 to 59 years old, and an individual case for elderlies aged 60 years old and above.

Meanwhile, 395 are below one year old, according to DOH.

"Choosing to focus vaccination efforts to the youngest (as early as 6 weeks of age) and with a multi-purpose vaccine (e.g., pentavalent which protects not just against Pertussis but also Diphtheria, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenza B) gives multivalent protection to this age group and as they grow older," DOH said.

"In a situation with limited resources, the DOH is choosing to protect the most vulnerable first, and is open to exploring ways to make access to the vaccines easier for the other population groups," it added.

Earlier, the Health department said three million more "pentavalent" vaccine doses are arriving in the Philippines "at the soonest possible time."

These pentavalent vaccines, the DOH noted, protect not only against pertussis, but also against diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, and hemophilus influenza type B.

These vaccines will add to over 64,000 and 2.6 million doses of pentavalent and measles-rubella vaccines, respectively, already being distributed by DOH.