The government has administered a large majority of the donated bivalent COVID-19 vaccines and is expecting more jabs to arrive, the Department of Health said Tuesday.

In a press briefing, Health Undersecretary Eric Tayag said that 69% of the 390,000 bivalent shots donated by Lithuania in June have been administered to healthcare workers, senior citizens, and adults with comorbidities as of Monday.

The donated bivalent jabs-which offer protection against the original COVID-19 virus and the Omicron variant-are set to expire in January 2024.

'Given the rapid uptake of the vaccines, they're unlikely to last until then,' Tayag said in Filipino.

Initially recommended as a third booster, bivalent vaccines can now be administered as a first or second booster.

But the health official also stressed that bivalent vaccines are not yet available to the general population.

'To those who are not part of the three [priority] categories, we do not recommend that you receive this kind of vaccine,' Tayag said.

Since 2021, more than 78.4 million have been fully immunized against COVID-19, but only 23.8 million individuals have received boosters.

The Philippines has confirmed over four million COVID-19 cases, with over 66,000 deaths, since the pandemic began in early 2020.

Local health authorities have detected 12 cases of EG.5, which was designated as a variant under monitoring by the World Health Organization. The WHO noted that EG.5 may cause a rise in cases and become dominant in some countries

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