The emergence of local cases of the more transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 in the country should not change the ultimate target of vaccinating 70 percent of the population by the end of the year, a vaccine expert said on Tuesday.
"The presence of the Delta variant is not really a big factor [to make changes on the target]. We should still have the same target of vaccinating 70 percent of our population by the end of the year, especially those in high-risk populations," vaccine expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said during the Laging Handa briefing.
The Department of Health said there were eight active Delta variant cases in the Philippines, with an estimated 109 million population.
Solante has urged the public to get vaccinated to protect themselves and the community from COVID-19 and the Delta variant, which “will not significantly affect the efficacy rate of the vaccines available in the country," he said.
The Philippines has available Sinovac, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik V and AstraZeneca vaccine brands.
More than half of the 27 million doses are Chinese vaccine Sinovac.
Solante also said there is no need for a booster shot just yet since further observations are still being conducted if significant breakthrough infections will occur among fully vaccinated individuals.
Meanwhile, Solante said he agrees with prohibiting minors from going outside amid the presence of the Delta variant, given that there is no COVID-19 vaccine for children yet.
"The children, if allowed outside, could transmit the virus especially when they live with elderly relatives," he said.
Meanwhile, more than 4.7 million individuals in the Philippines have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of July 18, the Departmentof Health said.
The DOH, in its latest COVID-19 vaccination bulletin, said 15,096,261 doses have been administered across 1,297 active vaccination sites.
The Philippines administered an average of 271,426 doses daily over the past week, lower than the government’s target of 500,000 jabs per day.
A total of 10,388,188 individuals have gotten at least one dose — 1,884,059 of whom were health workers, 2,760,074 were senior citizens, 3,440,132 were persons with comorbidities, 1,943,672 were essential workers, and 360,251 were indigents.
The DOH said 4,708,073 people have been fully inoculated — 1,312,167 of whom were health workers, 1,197,270 were senior citizens, 1,578,807 were persons with comorbidities, 449,252 were essential workers, and 170,577 were indigents.
“To win our race against COVID-19 variants, we encourage senior citizens to get vaccinated and take their second dose as scheduled,” the DOH said.
“Regardless of vaccination status, everyone is urged to continue practicing the minimum public health standards as you may still get infected with COVID-19 and infect other people,” it added.
In related developments, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on Monday received its first batch of 30,000 single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
Pharmaserv Express delivered the shipment to Tawi-Tawi and was accepted by BARMM Minister of Health Basharay Latiph and Department of Health-ARMM Assistant Secretary for Administration and Finance Abdulhalik Kasim.
National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the vaccines would be distributed to the municipalities of Sitangkai, Turtle Island and Mapun.
Galvez said BARMM was expected to get more vaccines as more than 300,000 doses have been allocated to the area from the 10 million doses of vaccines received by the national government this month.
“Our main consideration in deploying these vaccines to areas with reported cases of Delta variant is because these J&J doses only require one shot,” Galvez said, noting there is a need to protect Tawi-Tawi due to its proximity to Indonesia and Malaysia, which are both experiencing surges in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant.
Meanwhile, Galvez has committed to provide more COVID-19 vaccines to Northern Mindanao amid the reported cases of Delta variant in the area.
Earlier, PharmaServ Express shipped around 26,660 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Misamis Oriental and a total of 25,660 Janssen vials to Cagayan de Oro.
Vaccine doses against COVID-19, which were affected by a storage problem in Muntinlupa City, have been sent to experts at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to determine if they can still be administered, the Department of Health said.
“Let us wait for the UNICEF report. DOH is closely coordinating with them so that we may be able to know if the vaccines can still be used,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said at an online briefing.
On July 15, The Muntinlupa City government temporarily suspended the COVID-19 vaccination at the Festival Mall vaccination site due to an issue with its storage facility.
In a statement, the Muntinlupa City COVID-19 Vaccination Program said an initial investigation showed that there was a change in temperature at the facility that could affect the quality of the vaccines.
An initial investigation by the DOH indicated there was a failure in properly storing the vaccines, Vergeire said.
The government had said it was trying to prevent vaccine wastage due to limited supplies.
UNICEF, an advocate for equitable vaccine access for vulnerable populations, is known as the largest buyer of vaccines for children in the world.
In related developments, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday said his presence in various COVID-19 vaccination rollouts was not part of the election campaign.
In a virtual Palace presser, Roque said he was not using the country's inoculation program to promote himself ahead of the May 2022 elections.
"Certainly not. I am a spokesperson not just for the President but also for IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force),” he said.
He made the comment when asked if he felt alluded to by the call of poll watchdog Kontra Daya that the government should investigate the politicians exploiting the vaccination program for their election plan.
Roque, along with other national government officials, have been attending various vaccination events hosted by local government units and the private sector, as part of the government's task force for Covid-19 response.
"I consider my role as spokesperson to be very crucial in promoting vaccine confidence," he said.
Kontra Daya convenor Danilo Arao earlier urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to look into the "underhanded ways of politicians" to promote themselves.
“This is clearly a case of premature campaigning. Comelec should not be too technical and legalistic in refusing to do something about it,” he said.
Roque, however, said the Comelec could not impose its jurisdiction among 2022 potential candidates, since the campaign period for national positions is set from Feb. 8, 2022 to May 7, 2022.
"The Comelec still has no jurisdiction unless it's already in the campaign period. So I don't know what the Comelec will do about that.
But as much as we want it or not, as far as I know, by the law, the Comelec has no jurisdiction to implement our election law if it is not yet a campaign period," Roque said.
The existing election laws state a person is not considered a candidate unless the campaign period has already started.
“Nobody has filed a certificate of candidacy so that statement (of Kontra Daya) is bereft of merit,” Roque said.