Over 114K vaccinated so far vs. Covid-19

MANILA — Some 114,615 people have been inoculated with the available AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines acquired by the government, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Friday.

In a media briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said about 101,827 were administered with Sinovac’s CoronaVac and at least 12,788 with AstraZeneca vaccines, all among the more than one million masterlisted eligible population, including medical front-liners.

As of March 10, about 422 implementing units for vaccination have also been mobilized across the 17 regions.

The top three regions with the highest coverage for Sinovac are Metro Manila at 40.7 percent, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) at 13.9 percent, and Region 12 at 11.7 percent.

For AstraZeneca vaccines, the 12,788 vaccinees are spread out in Metro Manila, CAR, Ilocos Region, and Calabarzon, Vergeire said.

The country received 600,000 doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac on Feb. 28 and a total of 525,600 vials of AstraZeneca shots this month.

Citing latest DOH data, Vergeire said only 978 individuals have experienced “suspected adverse events” following immunization, 892 of whom were administered with Sinovac and 86 with AstraZeneca vaccines.

At least 85 of the AstraZeneca vaccinees who reported adverse events are “non-serious” while one is “serious”. On the other hand, 872 adverse events reported by Sinovac vaccinees were “non-serious” while 20 were “serious”.

Vergeire said the most common adverse events the DOH noted are pain in the injection site, body pain, fever, rashes, and in some cases, blood pressure shooting up.

“These are the common and minor. But once they undergo observation and given proper medicine if needed, they’re immediately sent home. Most of the numbers we’ve cited are because of these minor and common adverse events,” she said in Filipino.

“Usual lang po iyan, hindi dapat ikatakot (These are usual and should not be a cause of panic),” she added.

No reports of blood clotting among persons inoculated with AstraZeneca vaccine were also received by the DOH, amid blood clot reports after inoculation in some European countries.

“Sa ngayon wala pa tayong na-no-note na ganitong incident but of course ang country natin would always monitor these kinds of incidents (At present we have yet to note incidents like these but of course the country always monitors such reports),” she said.