MANILA, Philippines — Over 160,000 people in the Philippines have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 after getting their second doses, authorities reported Wednesday.
The country has administered 1,255,716 doses as of Tuesday, data from the Department of Health and the National Task Force Against COVID-19 showed.
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Of these, 162,065 people have been given second doses.
Meanwhile, 1,093,651 healthcare workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities have been afforded partial protection after receiving their first doses.
To speed up the country’s immunization efforts, the government decided to conduct the simultaneous vaccination of the top three priority groups: healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2) and people with comordibities (A3).
Over three million vaccine doses have so far arrived in the Philippines. Of the figure, 93% or 2,801,020 doses have been distributed across the country.
The volume is just a small fraction of the 161 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that the country is supposed to receive this year to inoculate at least 50 million people.
“With the sustained high number of cases in the country, the government has strengthened its collaboration with the private sector to boost the vaccine deployment program through the expedited rollout of vaccines to economic frontliners under the A4 priority group,” the DOH and NTF said.
Adverse events after injection
In a briefing Wednesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said over 24,000 suspected adverse events after immunization (AEFI) have been reported.
Among those who got CoronaVac, the vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech, almost 7,000 experienced non-serious events, while only 164 had severe side effects.
Among those who were vaccinated with AstraZeneca, 17,503 minor and 206 serious side effects were recorded.
The country’s Food and Drug Administration earlier said that adverse reactions experienced after inoculation are considered serious if they result in death and life-threatening situation, persistent or significant disability, and require in-patient hospitalization
Minor side effects include pain on the injection site, body pains, and increase in blood pressure.
Vergeire said “all of these are being investigated.”
“Some of the results have been out already, and until now, experts have yet to see that the serious events have been directly caused by the vaccines,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.