SOME 102,000 individuals have been given booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccines, the Department of Health said yesterday, about a week after the government started giving the additional shots.
In a briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said 102,102 booster shots have been given to individuals nationwide as of November 24.
Broken down into priority groups, 69,971 healthcare workers have been given boosters (A1 group in the national vaccination program), 21,139 senior citizens (A2), and additional doses for 10,992 immunocompromised individuals (A3).
The DOH started giving booster shots to healthcare workers on November 17. Around 1.64 million healthcare workers are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
Booster shots for senior citizens and additional doses for immunocompromised individuals began on November 22.
Record show 8,254,531 senior citizens and 9,021,220 people with comorbidities, which includes immunocompromised individuals, are qualified for COVID-19 jabs.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sought to allay fears about side effects of the COVID-10 vaccines.
FDA Director General Eric Domingo said the Philippines is seeing a very low rate for “adverse events following immunization,” or AEFIs.
“If you look at the clinical trials before we give the emergency use authorization for these vaccines, the AEFI would rate somewhere between 10 to 15 percent. That’s 10 to 15 percent of the people, who would really feel something after vaccination,” said Domingo.
“Definitely, the data we’re getting at less than 1 percent is within the allowable limit, very well within the acceptable levels of AEFI both for adults and children,” he added.
Aside from being below the usual rate, a large majority of the AEFI are those considered as non-serious events, Domingo said.
“Effective vaccines may really produce some undesirable side effects, which are mostly mild and clear up quickly,” he said.
Domingo also said AEFIs that have been reported were not directly caused by the vaccines.
“Many are simply coincidental events,” he said.
As of November 21, FDA data showed 76,837 AEFIs since the Philippines started the national vaccination drive on March 1.
The figure is merely 0.10 percent of total doses administered numbering to 75,600,808.
Of the total AEFIs, the FDA said 72,963 (94.96 percent) are non-serious events, while 3,874 (5.04 percent) are considered serious events.
The top AEFIs reported are blood pressure increased, pyrexia, headache, vaccination site pain, malaise, chills, myalgia, cough, dizziness, and fatigue.
