Palace: Int'l agreement needed for verifying COVID-19 vaccine certificates
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Monday cited the need for an international agreement that would set the standards for authenticating COVID-19 vaccine certificates after some sectors criticized the protocols for arriving individuals who got vaccinated in the Philippines.
Roque said the Philippine government's decision to require travelers who have been inoculated in the Philippines to undergo a seven-day facility-based quarantine upon arrival has stirred controversy.
Foreign nationals, overseas Filipino workers and Filipinos who have been fully vaccinated abroad are not covered by the policy. However, they should still undergo the usual testing protocols and complete a ten-day facility-based quarantine.
"Many criticized (the decision) last weekend. Their request is to do away with the quarantine for returning Filipinos especially those who are taking their vacation," Roque said during the ceremonial vaccination of economic frontliners at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay.
"The problem is we do not have yet an international agreement on how to verify the authenticity of the vaccination card...Perhaps we need to have an international agreement on the standard vaccination certificate so there would be no problems on authenticating, on determining whether the vaccination card is authentic or fake," he added.
Roque said the Philippines has just started the vaccination of workers in essential sectors so Filipinos can wait for an international agreement on vaccine cards.
"If we were able to wait for the arrival of vaccines for one year, perhaps we can also wait for a short period of time for the entire world to have an agreement on what to do with people who have been vaccinated," the Palace spokesman said.
"For the A4, the good news is whatever agreement is forged by countries worldwide, and we are now vaccinated, we now have a protection against severe illness, against COVID and we have a protection against death due to COVID and we can go back to work because of the vaccines," he added.
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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