Pinoys who missed 2nd shots just 9% of total: NTF

MANILA – The National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 and the Vaccine Cluster have refuted allegations that over one million Filipinos missed their second shots.

In a statement, the NTF said records from the National Vaccination Operation Center showed that only 9 percent, or roughly 113,000, missed their second doses, “clearly and significantly lower than the one million being cited by a certain health expert”.

“What is worrisome and questionable is that this medical expert, who is claiming this unverified figure, is not a member of NVOC and thus has no true and holistic picture of the government’s vaccine deployment efforts,” said NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. in a statement.

Galvez said what was disclosed were “mere conjectures and assumptions of his theory, and are not supported by accurate data since he is not grounded and exposed to field operations.”

If one claims to be working for the government, Galvez said “he is expected to be circumspect and responsible in giving pronouncements since these have major implications in the efforts being undertaken by hardworking individuals from the national and local governments, as well as the private sector.”

Different vaccine brands have their respective intervals between the first and second shots — from 21 days to 12 weeks.

Based on real data, roughly 2.5 million of the 5.5 million Sinovac doses were administered as complete doses, or 1.250 million individuals have been fully vaccinated. The remaining doses will be completed within June.

The first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine of about 525,000 doses that arrived in March were all administered within the same month as first dose.

AstraZeneca has a long spacing of eight to 12 weeks that is why the inoculation for the second dose just started this month.

The second dose was taken from the two million doses that arrived in early May. The remaining doses from this batch are currently being administered as the first shot.

The NTF also said that half of the initial 193,050 Pfizer doses that arrived on May 10 have been administered.

The second dose is scheduled to be dispensed this June as the recommended interval of the US-made jabs is 21 days.

The first 15,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine’s Component 1, which comprised the first dose, were fully administered in May, while its Component 2 consisting of another 15,000 doses were completely administered after a three-week gap.

The second tranche of Sputnik V vaccines consisting of 50,000 doses that were delivered on May 30 belong to Component 1 or the first dose.

The administration of the second dose of Component 2 will still start in the third week of June.

“These numbers clearly show that the claim made by the health expert that more than one million Filipinos missed their second dose is therefore unfounded and baseless,” Galvez said.

Legitimate reasons

The nine percent of vaccine recipients who failed to get their second doses have valid reasons, according to the NVOC and local chief executives.

Among the reasons are exposure to a Covid-19 patient and therefore, the need to be isolated or quarantined.

Some had to wait some more days to get their second doses after being inoculated with other vaccines such as those for the flu virus, while others were not administered the shot due to medical issues which arose at the vaccination site.

“Contrary to what others may think, we believe that those who received their first shot will come back to get their second shot and complete their vaccination,” Galvez said.

“We are pleased to see that our local government units are now accelerating the pace of their respective vaccine programs, as we in the NTF and Vaccine Cluster are doing our best to secure a steady supply of vaccine doses coming from different vaccine makers,” he added.

A4 group

Galvez said the bulk of vaccine supplies will arrive this month and will mean the start of the A4 sector (economic front-liners and uniformed personnel) inoculation, together with the remaining recipients under A1 (medical front-liners), A2 (elderly), and A3 (adults with comorbidities).

“We have already breached the five-million mark in total vaccines administered and more than7 1. 3 million Filipinos have been fully inoculated. We expect this figure to exponentially increase in the coming months as we move closer to our goal of vaccinating 70 percent of our population and achieving population protection within this year,” he said.

Galvez appealed to fellow public servants to be prudent and refrain from providing misleading information that may create hesitancy and cast doubt on the vaccination program.

“The Filipino people deserve facts, not assumptions. We now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Let us, therefore, remain focused on our collective goal, and that is, to save lives, put an end to this pandemic, and bring a greater sense of normalcy to the lives of our countrymen,” he said.

“We can only do this if we work together to get all people vaccinated when it is their time to be vaccinated.”