DOH: Over 13 million jabs administered nationwide

MANILA, Philippines — Over 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered nationwide with at least 3.4 million people already fully vaccinated, the Department of Health (DOH) reported yesterday.

Citing figures as of Saturday night, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje told a radio interview that out of the 13 million doses administered, 9.6 million were first doses.

“Mabilis kahit kaunti ang bakuna (Fast despite little vaccine supply),” said Cabotaje, noting an acceleration in the administration of the jabs on a per seven-day average from 170,000 to 250,000.

She also announced that vaccination in the National Capital Region (NCR) would resume this week as additional supply has already arrived in the country.

The DOH official said the bulk of vaccines that recently arrived would go to NCR-Plus 8 areas as well as highly urbanized and populated areas.

‘Antibody test unnecessary’

Meanwhile, the DOH discouraged the public from getting tested for antibodies after receiving COVID-19 vaccines.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said antibody testing is not recommended to evaluate the level of protection against COVID.

“There are several kinds of immunity that we can produce. These are the ones that cannot be seen in the antibody tests,” Vergeire said in a virtual briefing last Friday.

The Philippine Society of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (PSAAI) supported the DOH position, noting that currently available antibody tests are not wired to determine the efficacy of vaccines.

Digital registry

Yesterday, the DOH asked local government units (LGUs) to submit their list of vaccinated individuals for encoding in the digital registry system of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

“What is important is for the line list to be encoded in the DICT system. That will guarantee that when they ask for authentication, it’s in the vaccine administration record,” Cabotaje said.

She said the DICT is already rushing completion of the system designed to pass international standards.

“We are already working together so that we can hasten the digitization. In the end, what we want is an electronically generated and tamper-proof vaccination card,” Cabotaje said.

Caseload: 1.47 M

On confirmed COVID-19 cases, the DOH updated the nationwide tally to 1,473,025 with 5,916 new cases as of yesterday.

Of the total, 94.9 percent have recovered from the illness, while 3.4 percent are active cases.

With additional 105 deaths, the number of COVID-related deaths rose to 25,921 which account for 1.76 percent of total cases.

NCR topped the regions with high active and new cases followed by Calabarzon and Western Visayas.

NCR death rate decelerates

OCTA Research Group noted that the number of fatalities among COVID-19 patients in the NCR or Metro Manila is seeing a marked decrease as a result of better care in hospitals and wider vaccination coverage.

In their special article on the NCR Case Fatality Rate released yesterday, OCTA Research fellows Guido David, Erika Enriquez and Ranjit Rye noted: “The overall CFR (case fatality rate) in the NCR decreased from 1.06 percent from January 1 to March 31, to 0.78 percent from June 1 to July 6, 2021, a 26 percent decrease.”
“This means there are now less than 1 out of every 100 COVID-19 cases dying due to COVID. In comparison, the CFR in the NCR in 2020 was 2.32 percent, i.e. more than two out of 100 cases were dying due to COVID,” the researchers said.

The decrease in CFR was seen in almost all age groups.

“There has been a decrease in CFR for senior citizens 60 years old and above, from 5.87 percent (from 1/1 to 3/31) to 4.29 percent (from 6/1 to 7/6), a 27 percent decrease,” they reported.

“The current CFR for seniors citizens is also 64 percent lower than in 2020. There was also a decrease in CFR for those age 50 to 59 over the same period, from 1.61 percent to 1.21 percent or a 25 percent decrease. For the age 40 to 49 group, the decrease over the same period was 60 percent, from 0.62 percent to 0.37 percent,” the researchers added.

The CFR for those aged 18 to 39 remained the same at 0.13 percent.

However, the researchers noted that the CFR for the 17 and below age group increased from 0.07 percent from Jan. 1 to March 31, to 0.20 percent from June 1 to July 6, currently 1 out of 500 cases below 18 years old die due to COVID-19. –  Rainier Allan Ronda