The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday said it won’t be changing its coronavirus vaccination protocol after a female health worker died from COVID-19 more than a week after she was vaccinated.
This developed as nearly 7,500 persons among over 240,000 who were vaccinated against COVID-19 reported an adverse event following immunization (AEFI), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.
FDA chief Eric Domingo said 7,331 of the total 7,469 AEFIs were non-serious and 138 were serious, including a case that involved death.
“At this point in time there are no changes to our protocol,” said Dr. Beverly Ho, director of the Health Promotion Bureau and Disease Prevention and Control Bureau of the DOH.
This was a day after the department announced that its expert committee on adverse events concluded that the COVID-19 vaccine had nothing to do with the health worker’s death.
Meanwhile, Malacañang on Thursday said it supports the proposal to use China’s Sinovac-made “CoronaVac” vaccines on Filipino senior citizens despite earlier recommendations to limit its use on healthy individuals aged 18 to 59.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier raised the possibility of using the CoronaVac vaccine on the elderly since it has so far shown minimal adverse effects.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque backed Galvez’s statement, saying that other nations have also started using CoronaVac for their senior citizens.
But giving Sinovac to Filipino senior citizens is “intentional malpractice,” stressed Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
“Nakakagalit ang ganitong pagpupumilit ng National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF),” she said.
The health worker who died was a 47-year-old woman who had COVID-19 in 2020 and was vaccinated with Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine on March 4.
According to the National Adverse Events Following Immunization Committee (NAEFIC), her comorbidities were diabetes, hypertension, and bronchial asthma.
Dr. Rommel Lobo, vice chair of the NAEFIC, said the woman tested positive again for COVID-19 through a PCR test on February 22, but tested negative the day after. Because of this, the positive test on February 22 was deemed remnants of her infection last year.
Lobo said the woman did not have any symptoms when she was vaccinated on March 4. But on March 8, she tested positive for COVID-19.
“She was advised admission, but she refused,” he said.
On March 10, the health worker was admitted to the hospital. “Unfortunately, she died on March 13 of COVID-19 infection,” Lobo said.
Experts advise people who were already infected with COVID-19 to wait 2 to 3 months before getting vaccinated. Lobo said it was not a problem for the health worker since she was infected last year, and it had already been at least 6 months.
“The patient might have been exposed to an individual she had encountered and then she might be incubating or having asymptomatic symptoms at the time that she was vaccinated,” Lobo said.
Ho said that they won’t do COVID-19 testing prior to vaccination as part of the screening, as is the case in other countries.
Meanwhile, Food and Drug Administration Director General Eric Domingo said they had already informed Sinovac about the case and they are asking if there are similar cases in other countries.
While there are still no vaccines proven to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, Domingo reminded the public that it takes time for antibodies to develop after being vaccinated.
“We always remind people that after you are vaccinated it’s not like magic that you will no longer have COVID. It takes time. You have to give your body time to develop immunity and resistance against the COVID-19 virus after a vaccine is injected into your body,” he said.
A serious AEFI is one that results in death, a life-threatening situation like anaphylaxis, in-patient and prolonged hospitalization, persistent or significant disability, congenital anomaly or birth defect, or a medically important event, Domingo explained.
Some of the most common AEFIs were pain at the injection site, chills, chest discomfort, fatigue, and headache.
Among the reported AEFIs, 3,700 were linked to the Sinovac jab and 3,769 were connected to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Over 2,400 AEFIs were also recorded in Metro Manila, where the bulk of the initial vaccine shipments were rolled out.