AstraZeneca jabs being eyed for elderly medical personnel, officials say
MANILA, Philippines — Government on Thursday said it is looking to vaccinate health workers who are also senior citizens with the AstraZeneca, whose doses are due to arrive in the country later tonight after figuring in delays.
The delivery of 487,200 doses under the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility comes as the country is days into its inoculation efforts, with so far the Sinovac as the only choice.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles in a briefing recognized the Chinese-made jabs' limitation of only being recommended by the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group for 18 to 59-years-old.
This leaves out those 60 and above, including medical personnel who have continued in their duties.
"The Astrazeneca vaccine has no limts on age," he said. "So we will await for the advice of the NITAG [if] we can use this for senior citizens who are health workers and can't be inoculated with the Sinovac."
Vaccinations in the Philippines began on March 1, with health workers the first to receive the jabs despite an earlier advice by the Food and Drug Administration against it.
To date, Nograles said 8,559 have already been inoculated, which includes some administration officials in a bid to allay public concerns over Sinovac.
Speaking to CNN Philippines' "The Source," vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said too that doctors are pushing to prioritize elderly health workers to receive the AstraZeneca.
He added that inoculations are already ongoing in 32 hospitals, with efforts soon expanding to Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Cebu City as more than 190,000 doses of Sinovac were already transported nationwide.
The administration first said the jabs from the COVAX facility, that is AstraZeneca including 117,000 doses from Pfizer, will arrive in the country by February 15.
But hopes by many for vaccines that have reported higher efficacy rates were met with delays due to the lack of an indemnity agreement.
Latest allocation figures from the COVAX published showed that the Philippines is due to receive 4.58 million doses of AstraZeneca, from the earlier 5.5 million given by officials.
Galvez, who yesterday was hesitant to confirm the arrival of the said jabs, told CNN Philippines as well that the delivery is slated by 7:30 p.m. tonight.
The national government has so far secured two official deals for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in the Philippines, one with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Watch this space for bite-sized developments on the vaccines in the Philippines. (Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire says the general population may now get their second booster jab.
"We're just waiting for the release of implementing guidelines, then we'll start rolling out our second booster for the general population," she says. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Amid questions on vaccines being administered, the Department of Health assures the public all doses are safe and effective as the “process of extending shelf life goes through thorough stability studies.”
“The government ensures that every vaccine that is injected with an extended shelf life has gone through studies, and is still safe and effective against COVID-19,” it adds.
Government must increase vaccination capacity across the Philippines in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the corona virus, Sen. Risa Hontiveros says.
She says local government units and the private sector can work together to put up more vaccination centers and deploy more vaccination teams to get more people inoculated against COVID-19.
"The active COVID cases have nearly doubled in three days. The positivity rate is almost four times the ceiling set by the World Health Organization. Huwag na nating hintayin na sobrang lumala pa ang sitwasyon bago tayo gumawa ng paraan para mapabilis ang ating pagbabakuna."
FDA chief Eric Domingo says that its agency has given emergency approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The United States immunized around 900,000 children aged five-to-11 against Covid in the first week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for them, a White House official says Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more have made appointments at pharmacies, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients tells reporters.
"The program is just getting up to full strength," he says, adding most of the shots were given in the last couple of days alone. — AFP
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