Another batch of COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, composed of 1.8 million doses, arrived in the Philippines Sunday.
The Pfizer shots, donated by the United States through the sharing platform COVAX, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 via flight National Airlines N8 523.
This dovetails with the country’s plan to vaccinate 12.7 million minors aged 12 to 17 years old against COVID-19, prioritizing children with comorbidities, the Department of Health said Sunday.
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, in an interview on Dobol B TV, said the national government would prioritize 10 percent of the total minors nationwide for the next two to three months while they monitor the adverse effects of the vaccines.
"We will make it a phased approach. We will start with those with comorbidity," Cabotaje said.
Meanwhile, the Philippines logged on Sunday 13,273 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019, bringing the total to 2,593,399, the DOH reported.
All laboratories were operational, while three laboratories were not able to submit their data on time, the Health Department added.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 reproduction number in the National Capital Region decreased this week to 0.85, the OCTA Research Group said.
OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David, in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, said the figure was lower than 0.87 on Thursday — the number of people that one COVID-19 case can infect.
David said the country's reproduction number was at 0.91, lower than the 0.98 reported the previous Sunday.
NCR's positivity rate, or the percentage of positive test results over the number of conducted tests, also went down to 17 percent, while its seven-day average is at about 3,600.
"The decrease is huge because our highest in NCR reached nearly 6,000 cases per day,” said David.
But David said NCR's average daily attack rate, or the number of new daily cases per 100,000 population, was still at critical level.
The number of COVID-19 admissions at the Philippine General Hospital, the premier referral facility for coronavirus cases, went down, a hospital spokesperson said.
However, majority of its remaining cases are severe, said Dr. Jonas del Rosario
The end-referral hospital has 228 virus patients or around 80 percent occupancy rate, down from an all-time high of nearly 350 patients, Del Rosario said.
On Saturday, the Philippines also received 889,200 doses of Pfizer's vaccine. The latest delivery brings the country's total received vaccine doses to 77,410,640.
After vaccinating children with comorbidities and those who have access or staying in hospitals in Metro Manila, the government will inoculate children nationwide, Cabotaje said.
Cabotaje said the National Children's Hospital and Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City as well as Philippine General Hospital in Manila had announced they would help in vaccination of children.
President Rodrigo Duterte revealed last week the government would start the COVID-19 immunization program for children and the general population.
Asked about possible side effects of vaccines for children, Cabotaje said they include anaphylaxis, myocarditis, headache, body ache, and allergies, among others.
"There are not that many. They are also not that severe," she said.
On treating children with side effects from vaccines, Cabotaje told parents: "We have guidelines on where they can treat their children."
The Philippine Food and Drug Administration has given an emergency use authorization to Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for use on those aged 12 to 17 years old.
More than 20 million Filipinos are already vaccinated against COVID-19, latest government figures showed.
Secretary Carlito Galvez, who heads the country's vaccination efforts, said a portion of the Pfizer vaccines would be allotted for those aged to 17.
The Pfizer jabs will also be given to priority groups such as senior citizens and persons with comorbidities, he added.
Galvez said the country was expected to receive millions of Pfizer, Moderna and Sinovac vaccines this October.
"By the end of October, we project that the country would have received a total of 100 million vaccine doses (since February), which could fully inoculate about 50 million Filipinos," he said.
"This brings us closer to our goal of achieving herd immunity or population protection for us to safely exit from this pandemic as soon as possible," he added.
The US also donated P1.9 million worth of medical supplies such as ultra-cold freezers.
Following the government’s decision to pilot run the limited reopening of schools in low-risk areas or towns which have zero COVID-19 cases, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian urged the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to carefully consider easing quarantine restrictions to pave the way for the resumption of many business operations.
The Senate Economic Affairs vice chairperson noted a study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank which said in terms of foregone wages of parents who need to stop working to care for their children, the economic cost would amount to P225 billion, covering 11 percent of the affected workforce during the school year 2020 to 2021.
“Parents are also employees. Experience has shown that most working parents are unable to work as they need to stay home with their quarantined children, especially with granular lockdowns being enforced in Metro Manila,” the senator said.
He added working parents would hopefully be more productive to focus on work with the reopening of classes.