MANILA, (PIA) - - President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday urged Filipinos to keep their COVID-19 vaccines updated and help prevent the resurgence of the virus.

"To every Filipino, continue doing your part, get updated on your COVID-19 vaccination to prevent the resurgence," Pres. Marcos said when he joined the Department of Health’s launching of bivalent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City.

" I thus appeal to everyone especially those who have yet to receive the primary series of vaccinations to get vaccinated against COVID-19," he added.

The Chief Executive said the vaccines "have played an integral role" in the nation's fight against COVID-19.

Around 400,000 doses of bivalent vaccines were received from the Lithuanian government in June. These shots have been seen effective against both the COVID-19 original strain and the Omicron variant.

During the event, the President also did a quick tour of a vaccine booth.

Based on DOH's COVID-19 vaccination data as of March 19, at least 79,164,840 people have received their first and second doses against the virus.

He then called on all public health officials to beef up their COVID-19 prevention and mitigation efforts.

"I expect that the DOH will continue to fortify its efforts to protect the Filipino public against all health risks," he said.

"We have seen slowly, slowly slowly that this thing has almost completely gone away. However, these new variants force us to once again reexamine what it is that we can do to help protect our populace," he added.

He then thanked them for their accomplishments.

"I would also like to thank our tireless officials and employees in the local government units, the healthcare workers, and other national government agencies," he added.

"Every time I address our front-line workers or health workers, I always begin with a big thank you to all of you for all the sacrifices that you made during the height of the pandemic and for saving millions of Filipinos," he further said.

He, likewise, lauded their efforts and said that the Philippines was able to "emerge from the global pandemic and walk onto the clear path of recovery."

"We have been praying that the COVID-19 pandemic will soon be over. And in a way, our prayer has been answered," he said. (PIA-NCR)