DOH: 24,000 adverse events, no deaths in vaccinations

MANILA, Philippines — Some 24,823 “reported (or) suspected” cases of “adverse events following immunization” have been recorded by the Department of Health as of April 11, the DOH said yesterday.

The number was noted by Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire at a press briefing, after she reported that some 1.1 million individuals have already been immunized against COVID-19 and almost 900,000 of them are health care workers mostly working on the frontlines at hospitals and in communities.

For Sinovac vaccines, non-serious adverse events totaled almost 7,000 while severe cases were pegged at 164.

For the AstraZeneca jabs, 17,709 vaccinees have experienced adverse events. A total of 17,503 of them are minor while 206 are serious.

“All of these are being investigated and some of the results are already out. Until now, experts have not seen ‘direct causality’ and this means that the vaccines did not cause serious effects,” Vergeire said.

She also underscored that based on the review of experts, none of the vaccines available in the country have caused deaths nor led to COVID-19 infections.

No swab before jab

Meanwhile, the DOH does not subscribe to the idea of swab testing those up for COVID-19 vaccination, saying that it usually takes 14 days for symptoms to manifest.

Vergeire said the DOH could not recommend swab testing before vaccination.

“Actually, all over the world, no country is implementing this. Reputable institutions and the World Health Organization do not recommend this,” she added.

The health undersecretary noted that this would only “further delay the vaccination of individuals.”

“What we do is symptoms and exposure screening. Those who have related symptoms will not be vaccinated,” she said.

She also underscored the possibility of a person who is asymptomatic but may be incubating during vaccination.