Health Dep’t Firm in Use of AstraZeneca Despite OCTA Caution

The Department of Health (DOH) said Thursday that it would still provide healthcare workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine, as the British-Swedish Covid-19 injection had not been conclusively found to be ineffective against the South African variant of the coronavirus.

The DOH and the World Health Organization (WHO) said the clinical trial in South Africa where the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine against variant B.1.351 dropped from 70 percent to 10 percent had fewer than 2,000 participants.

“The sample is very small, less than 2000, and it was young people. The study has not yet been peer reviewed, so the evidence is not yet complete for us to say [the decreased efficacy] it will happen, ”said Undersecretary of Health, María Rosario Vergeire, in a briefing before the arrival of 487,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the WHO-led global group of vaccines Covax on Thursday night.

Virus transmission

“No matter what [trial] they will say that the efficacy decreased, while we are uncertain, we will continue to use the vaccine, “added Vergeire.

WHO representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe said the vaccine would help contain transmission of the virus, along with health measures.

“We still believe that the AstraZeneca vaccine remains effective even in places where there is a large proportion of cases that can be attributed to the B.1.351 variant or the South African variant,” he said.

“There is no evidence of the large-scale presence of this variant in the Philippines,” Abeyasinghe added.

“We have a window of opportunity to make sure we protect as many people as possible,” he said.

The OCTA Research Group of the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas on Wednesday warned against the use of AstraZeneca due to findings of its low efficacy against the South African variant.

Citing that study, the research group said CoronaVac, the Covid-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech launched on Monday, could provide better protection against the South African variant.

No comment

Vergeire, however, said that Sinovac had not yet studied whether its vaccine was effective against the highly contagious variants from South Africa and the United Kingdom.

“So we can’t comment on that because we don’t have evidence about it,” he said.

Abeyasinghe said that the WHO was still evaluating CoronaVac, so it could not comment on its safety and efficacy. “In the meantime, we are following the guidelines set by the regulatory body (Food and Drug Administration) and upheld by DOH,” he said.

Meanwhile, DOH said it would wait for its counterparts in Hong Kong and South Korea to complete its investigation into the deaths of at least three people who received the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines.

Abeyasinghe said the WHO had pledged to deliver up to 4.58 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the Philippines by May.

The first batch of 487,200 doses of the vaccine arrived in Manila on Thursday night. Government officials led by President Duterte received the vaccines during a ceremony at Villamor Air Base.

But officials said that even with the addition of AstraZeneca injections to the 600,000 doses of CoronaVac now being distributed by the government, the country’s stocks were still below its goal of vaccinating more than 1 million healthcare workers. , of which 8,559 had received China -Shot made as of Wednesday.

In a speech in the city of Valenzuela on Thursday, President Duterte said China would donate an additional 400,000 doses of CoronaVac, raising its donation to 1 million doses.

He said it would allow the economy to reopen and students to return to school when Filipinos began lining up en masse to get vaccinated.

Dr. Edsel Salvana, an infectious disease expert who advises the government on vaccine allocation, said the interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) will meet Thursday to decide the allocation of AstraZeneca.

Each vial of AstraZeneca contains 10 doses, which means that vaccinators must ensure that 10 people are ready to receive injections to avoid waste.

Assignment

At a news conference, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said that the decision to assign AstraZeneca vaccines to elderly healthcare workers or members of the elderly general population would depend on the recommendation of the advisory group.

Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro called on NITAG Thursday to consider expanding vaccine coverage to include front-line economic workers and vulnerable older people.

“At Marikina, many of our seniors had pre-registered and are eligible, so I ask NITAG to consider them as well,” said Teodoro.

The first to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine are healthcare workers at government-run hospitals in Metro Manila.

“We will give our front-line physicians the option to choose [between Sinovac and AstraZeneca]”Said Presidential spokesman Harry Roque.

Healthcare workers are hesitant to take the Chinese-made vaccine due to its low efficacy rate of 50.4 percent among high-risk groups like themselves. Many have expressed a preference for the Pfizer vaccine.

Roque asked them to heed the advice of health experts that “the best vaccine is the vaccine available.”

Next on the government’s priority list are older people. Roque said vaccines intended for healthcare workers who would refuse to take them could be given to older people.

Made in South Korea

The National Covid-19 Task Force said the Philippines’ participation in the AstraZeneca vaccine came from pledges from Germany, Norway, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Greece to Covax.

In a television interview, task force leader Carlito Gálvez Jr. said that the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine was manufactured in South Korea before being “consolidated” into stock at AstraZeneca headquarters in Belgium.

From Brussels, a KLM Royal Dutch plane transported the vaccines to Manila via Bangkok. From Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the vaccines were transported to Villamor Air Base to be officially delivered to the Philippine government, then taken in refrigerated vans to Marikina City for storage at MetroPac Movers Inc., a storage provider in cold for DOH.

The vaccines did not come with the 0.5 cc syringes used to administer AstraZeneca injections.

With nearly 600,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 12,000 deaths, the Philippines is battling one of the harshest coronavirus epidemics in Asia.

On Thursday, the DOH reported 2,452 additional coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 584,667.

He said 15 more patients had died, bringing the death toll to 12,404. But another 266 patients had recovered, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 535,037.

Deaths and recoveries left the country with 37,226 active cases, of which 90.1 percent were mild, 4.9 percent asymptomatic, 0.81 percent moderate, 2.1 percent severe, and 2 , 1 percent critical. —WITH REPORTS FROM MARICAR CINCO, JEROME ANING AND CATHRINE GONZALES

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For more information on COVID-19, call the DOH hotline: (02) 86517800 local 1149/1150.

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