Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa announced that monovalent XBB COVID-19 vaccines from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) will be given first to seniors and immunocompromised individuals.

The Philippines is asking 500,000 doses of vaccines as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"This process is ongoing," Herbosa said in a forum Tuesday. "Ang hinihingi ko ay only half a million doses muna kasi ang recommendation ng WHO ay ibigay siya sa immunocompromised and elderly."

In the same forum, he said the Alpha, Delta, and other fatal variants of COVID-19 appear to be extinct now.

The DOH chief said they have seen a downtrend in COVID-19 cases following the slight uptick during the holiday season.

"Noong Christmas holidays, nag-report kami ng about 10% increase of cases, bumaba na po ito, 4% na lang compared to those reported the week previously," Herbosa said.

The WHO earlier warned the public of an increase in cases driven by the JN.1 subvariant.

The U.S. disease control authority estimated that JN.1 already accounted for roughly 62 percent of cases across the country, and it is also dominant in Europe.