GOVERNMENT is eyeing the vaccination of one million people daily amid the threat of the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 said yesterday.
The initial targets were 500,000 vaccinations a day, then 700,000 to 750,000 in a bid to reach population protection or vaccination of 50 percent of the adult population by November, and herd immunity or vaccination of 70 million of the adult population by December.
NTF deputy implementer and testing czar Vince Dizon said the government reached “a high” of 710,000 jabs in one day last week.
He appealed for everyone to cooperate to reach the latest target as he said it is now a “race” against the Delta variant.
He reiterated the success of the vaccination program would also depend on the availability of vaccines.
The government expects a supply of 22.7 million doses of vaccines this month, with about 4.4 million already delivered. From September to the end of the year, the government expects a steady supply of 15 million to 30 million doses a month.
The country has received some 38.3 million doses of various vaccine brands.
As of August 8, there were about 11.4 million fully vaccinated individuals, according to the Department of Health, and some 24.5 million doses administered,.
“The average daily administered doses in the last seven days is at 516,601,” said the DOH.
Dizon said at least 3 million doses have been released to local government units (LGUs) in the National Capital Region (NCR) to boost its vaccination operations during the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period that started on August 6.
The NCR targets to vaccinate 4 million people during the lockdown, to reach the target of vaccinating 45 percent of the adult population by the end of the ECQ.
Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla urged the national government to allocate more vaccines to the province.
At the “Laging Handa” press briefing, Remulla said 407,854 Cavite residents have been so far vaccinated out of the 2,441,502 target.
“Our vaccination rate is just just 16.7 percent,” he said adding only 4 percent of targeted population had been vaccinated per month over the past four months.
“We still need to vaccinate the other 84 percent, if we are 4 percent per month, it will take us 20 months before we achieve a herd immunity,” Remulla also said.
Remulla said the province is trying to procure 1.5 million doses of Novavax vaccine this year and another one million early next year.
The province is under modified enhanced community quarantine. Based on DOH data, the province has recorded 85,460 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday, with 79,601 recoveries and 792 dead.
SINOVAC
Senate President pro tempore Ralph Recto asked government to consider the purchase of more effective vaccines against COVID-19 now that it plans to have minors vaccinated against the fatal virus.
“We should procure more effective vaccines and not rely on Sinovac for most of our vaccines. There are reports that Sinovac is less effective against Delta variant etc. My advice is to do risk management in vaccine procurement,” Recto said.
Majority of the vaccines procured by the government are made by Sinovac Biotech Ltd, a private Chinese firm.
According to a Reuters news report dated June 29, “China has not provided vaccine effectiveness results against the (Delta) variant based on large-scale data in clinical trials or real-world use, nor offered detailed information from lab tests, but Chinese experts are urging people to get inoculated as soon as possible.”
But researchers found that Chinese vaccines are somewhat effective in reducing the risk of symptomatic and severe causes by the Delta variant, according to Zhong Nanshan, an epidemiologist who helped shape China’s COVID-19 response, Reuters said.
Nicanor Austriaco Jr., a molecular biologist, said that based on clinical trial for Sinovac in Turkey, the Chinese-made vaccine has an efficacy of 83.5 percent when given to an individual 14 days apart.
He also said published news reports from the Indonesian city of Kudus, where around 350 of the 5,000 healthcare workers there were infected with the Delta variant, showed that Sinovac offers at least 93 percent protection rate, since 4,650 healthcare workers did not get infected with the Delta variant.
“Since healthcare workers are at high risk for COVID-19 because they are exposed to high levels of virus in their workplace, we can conclude that the protection for a typical Filipino would be at least as god as 93 percent if not higher,” Austriaco said.
BOOSTER SHOTS
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the government is looking at penalizing those getting booster shots against COVID-19.
In a television interview, Duque said the matter will be discussed with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
“We can take this up in the IATF-EID en banc so that we can decide more resolutely if there will be (penalties for) those found out after investigation that they did get booster shots,” said Duque.
“We have to vaccinate the priority groups first. Get them to the highest possible vaccination coverage. The talk about booster doses has no place at this point… It is against policy, against the IATF-EID resolution,” he said.
He asked the public to report individuals getting booster shots.
Asked about the case of San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora who publicly said he got four shots, Duque said, “What happened to Congressman Zamora is because of his serious comorbidities as recognized by his physician,” said Duque.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said there is no recommendation from the Vaccine Experts Panel (VEP) to allow booster shots.
“Our decisions are based on science and evidence. We need evidence because the government is mandated to protect public health,” explained Vergeire. — With Raymond Africa, Victor Reyes and Gerard Naval
