MANILA, Philippines — Local regulators said Thursday that the country must continue to use its supply of AstraZeneca vaccines despite issues hounding the jabs in other parts of the world.
Food and Drug Administration chief Eric Domingo cited recommendations from the World Health Organization, the Adverse Event Committee along with their experts who were "unanimous" that the vaccine should still be administered.
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"Overall, the benefit outweighs the known and potential risks," he said in Filipino, adding that blood clotting incidents reported in Europe have not been seen so far in the country. "So I wrote to Secretary Francisco Duque III to reiterate [this]."
The Philippines reached 1.1 million individuals vaccinated by mid-April, or more than a month since inoculation efforts began. From the said figure, the Department of Health said 24,823 adverse events were recorded with no deaths.
That's 17,709 incidents from AstraZeneca, while almost 7,000 from Sinovac with 164 severe cases.
Also this month, health authorities paused administering AstraZeneca to 60-years-old and above. It came after the European Medicine Agency found that blood clotting along with a low platelet count is a potential but"very rare" side effect of getting the jab.
Domingo has since said that the agency will release new guidelines on the use of AstraZeneca vaccines this week.
“We will release guidelines, especially for the vaccinators, so they can advice vaccine recipients which symptoms to watch out for and so they will know when they need to consult for this very rare possible occurrence of a blood clotting event,” he said.
The country's supply of AstraZeneca jabs are donations from the WHO-led COVAX facility. It remains crucial to the Philippines' vaccination program, as it has only signed a single direct purchase deal so far, with others remaining in supply agreements. — Christian Deiparine