GOVERNMENT is looking to vaccinate children with comorbidities and other individuals outside priority groups by October, National Task Force against COVID-19 chief Carlito Galvez Jr. said yesterday.
Galvez, concurrent vaccine czar, said the country is expected to have a stable supply of vaccines by next month, and reach population protection – or full vaccination of 50 percent of the eligible population — in Metro Manila by then.
He said the country is expecting the arrival of 25 million doses of vaccines this month and 29.5 million doses in October.
Starting this month, he also said, the government is deploying more vaccines to the provinces, especially in areas with a high number of COVID-19 cases, to enable the provinces to catch up with the vaccination rate of Metro Manila.
He said at least 45 percent of the population in Metro Manila is fully vaccinated and most of the vaccines being deployed now in the region is for the second dose to complete the inoculation of the people there.
All vaccine brands currently in use, except for that made by Johnson & Johnson, are given in two doses at an interval of about four weeks.
“We are proposing that by October, we will open the vaccination to the general population including vulnerable children with comorbidities. We believe that by October, we will have enough supply),” Galvez said in mixed Filipino and English.
The government is prioritizing the vaccination of medical frontliners (Group A1), senior citizens (A2), individuals with comorbidities (A3), economic frontliners (A4), and indigents (A5).
Galvez said local government units in the provinces have been instructed to go full blast in vaccinating all under the A1 to A5 categories, instead of waiting until the majority of those under the A1 to A3 categories are vaccinated.
He said some 33.7 million doses of vaccines have been administered nationwide, with close to 14 million people having completed the two doses.
The country has so far received 51.9 million doses of vaccines including the three million Sinovac and 15,000 doses of Sputnik V (second component) vaccines that arrived on Tuesday. A shipment of 703,170 doses of Pfizer vaccine was expected to arrive Wednesday night.
Benhur Abalos, chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, said herd immunity in Metro Manila (National Capital Region) will be achieved by the end of this month.
According to MMDA’s records, the vaccination target in the Metro Manila is 14 million. As of August 31, at least 8 million have received the first dose, or about 81.7 percent of the eligible population, while about 4.5 million individuals have been fully vaccinated, or about 45.9 percent of the eligible population.
ADVERSE EFFECTS
Over 1,000 vaccinated individuals were infected with COVID-19, based on data of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In its latest Suspected Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccines report, the FDA said most of the 1,061 confirmed infections among vaccinated individuals as of August 22 were asymptomatic.
The report said there were 100 severe cases who died. “Most of the fatal reports have not yet completed their vaccination course,” said the FDA.
Upon assessment, the agency said breakthrough infection cases were not related to the use of the vaccine but were actual COVID-19 natural infections.
“The vaccines currently being used in the COVID-19 vaccination program are non-replicating viral vector, inactivated, and mRNA vaccines. It does not contain any live virus and does not cause COVID-19 infection in vaccine recipients,” the FDA said.
Including COVID-19 infections, the FDA reported close to 60,000 suspected adverse events following immunization (AEFIs), including both non-serious and serious events among fully and partially vaccinated individuals.
“A total of 59,092 suspected adverse reaction reports (0.19% of doses administered) were received, evaluated, and analyzed by the FDA,” it said.
The number includes 57,190 non-serious events and 1,902 serious events, said the report.
Non-serious AEFIs include body pain, chills, fatigue, fever, headache, nausea, and pain in the injection site; while serious side effects include severe allergic reactions, increased blood pressure, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, inflammation of the heart, and significant disability/incapacity.
By brand, 23,566 AEFIs have been reported out of the 16,825,709 Sinovac doses administered, 29,922 out of the 5,583,630 AstraZeneca jabs, and 643 out of the 322,940 Sputnik V doses.
There were 2,246 AEFIs out of the 2,916,260 Pfizer shots, 616 out of the 1,341,870 Moderna vaccines, and 2,099 out of the 3,556,943 Janssen jabs.
At the House, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said at least 4,500 doses have been wasted because of mishandling and accidents, but the figure is relatively “low” compared to the millions of vaccines distributed and administered.
“Our wastage is very low. From March to August 20, we have accounted for only 4,528 total wastage in doses. Overall, except for these published reports of fire incidents and those that were accidentally frozen, our cold-chain facilities have been generally very careful and very well-managed for these vaccines,” she told the budget hearing of the House committee on appropriations on the DOH’s P242.22 billion proposed national budget for 2022.
The national vaccination program started in March.
At least four percent of next year’s budget or about P241 billion was allocated for COVID-19 response, including the P45.4 billion to cover the COVID-19 booster shots of 93.798 million fully-vaccinated Filipinos who might need to be inoculated again next year.
The Manila government opened some vaccination sites for walk-ins and non-city residents belong to the A1 to A5 groups.
It said the sites are in “45 health centers in District 1 to District 6, as well as in four mall sites” in the city.
The health centers were each allotted 1,500 doses each while the mall sites — SM San Lazaro, SM Manila, Robinsons Place and Lucky Chinatown – were given 1,000 doses each.
No walk-ins will be accepted a the drive-thru vaccination site at the Quirino Grandstand.
The city said those who would like to get vaccinated at the drive-thru site need to sign up first at the Manila CoVax site.
Interior Undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya asked local government units (LGUs) to stop using contact tracers as vaccinators. — With Noel Talacay, Gerard Naval, Ashzel Hachero and Victor Reyes
