CALOOCAN CITY, March 16 (PIA) -- President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on Monday night expressed his concern in accepting suggestions that all the 525,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines, initially meant as second jabs for healthcare frontline workers, be used as first shots for others, for more coverage.
In his televised public address, the President expressed his hesitation to approve the recommendation of Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III, and despite the assurance made by Secretary Carlito Galvez on the arrival of AstraZeneca vaccines this March.
Pres. Duterte is worried the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines for the country may not arrive in time to boost the first shot already received by several thousand healthcare workers since the massive vaccine rollout on March 1.
“You know, how about those needing already the second dose? There’s a problem there. Sabihin mo gamitin na muna para sa first dose ng hindi pa nabakunahan, that’s good,” he said.
“But the problem is sabihin mo the second dose would come from the future deliveries, okay ‘yan. Ang problema, ang next problem is baka hindi dumating. Ano ngayon ang on time?” he added.
“I’m sure that everybody especially the World Health Organization must know our quandary na gagamitin natin,” he further said.
The President also expressed confidence in the country's COVID-19 response efforts, as he rallied the public and gave assurance they will not be left behind.
“Kaya natin ang COVID na ito. Maliit na bagay ito kumpara sa mga nakaraang dinaanan natin. Lahat kayo, huwag matakot at hindi ko kayo iiwanan. Ang order ko ngayon ay for the team to give you the vaccine. We will use all government assets, all government vehicles, lahat lahat. All departments must contribute. This is a fight not only against the COVID but also against despair and hopelessness,” Duterte said.
In his justification, Duque explained, “We have vaccines for the second dose, the Sinovac, and the AstraZeneca. We have already set aside the Sinovac vaccines for second dose because its interval is only 28 days. We can give the AstraZeneca vaccines as the first dose because its shelf life is short as advised by the World Health Organization while its time interval for the second dose is 12 weeks.”
The Secretary added that the Philippine government will write a letter to the manufacturing firm of AstraZeneca vaccines to give assurance of its timely arrival.
Secretary Carlito Galvez, for his part, agreed with the recommendation of Secretary Duque saying, “I agree with Secretary Duque because we were given warning order by COVAX facility of the arrival of 979,200 doses of AstraZeneca this March 22 or if there’s delay by early April.
Galvez added that WHO Country Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe advised him to use the 525,000 doses of AstraZeneca as first dose because the additional doses are coming and it will also resolve the problem of its short shelf life since the second dose should be given after 12 weeks or three months.
“This coming March we will be expecting 2.3 million doses from Sinovac, 400,000 from Chinese donations, also working on procurement through DOH of 1 million Sinovac which totals 1.4 million Sinovac vaccine. And from WHO, we might be receiving almost a million (979,200) of AstraZeneca within this month or early April," Galvez said.
Duque said the vaccination of healthcare workers will be steadily paced to ensure that hospitals are fully operational and their hospital staff sufficient at any given time, considering that the same healthcare workers being vaccinated are the ones maintaining the integrity of the health system.
Further, both Duque and Galvez highlighted that the initial rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers is but the preparatory phase of the full-scale vaccination program, and noted that lessons learned from this phase will be beneficial once vaccination has been ramped up to cover the rest of the priority population.
The efficacy of the vaccines received by the Philippines will require two doses within a certain amount of time.
The country has so far received 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines donated by China. An additional 525,600 of AstraZeneca shots came from the WHO Covax facility.
As of Monday, around 193,000 healthcare workers have received their first dose of COVID-19 shots. (PIA NCR)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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