Better Christmas now at hand – Galvez

MANILA, Philippines — National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. yesterday said that after the successful conduct of the first National Vaccination Days, a “better Christmas this year is now at hand for Filipinos.”

During the first leg of the National Vaccination Day, in a span of five days, the country was able to administer 10,254,560 doses, averaging about 2,050,912 doses per day. The NTF chief also said average daily caseload fell below 500 in the past days.

As of Dec. 7, the Philippines has already administered a total of 93,687,341 vaccine doses – 53,841,469 as first doses while 39,236,194 individuals are now fully vaccinated.

The government aims to achieve population protection by fully vaccinating at least 54 million Filipinos before the year ends.

During his visit to the mega vaccination site at the Main Square Mall in Bacoor City, Cavite yesterday, Galvez also likened being vaccinated with having supernatural powers or “agimat.”

“Like what Mam (Bacoor Mayor) Lani (Mercado-Revilla) said, pag may bakuna, may agimat (with vaccine, with supernatural powers). Like myself, I had my first two doses of Sinovac and had my booster on homologous Sinovac also. All kinds of vaccines are effective. So, let us not choose our vaccine and have ourselves vaccinated immediately,” Galvez said.

EUA for minors

Pharmaceutical firms Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac have applied for emergency use authorization (EUA) for their COVID-19 vaccines for minors, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed yesterday.

At a public briefing, FDA director general Eric Domingo said Pfizer has sought an EUA for their vaccine for those aged 5 to 17 years old, while Sinovac applied for their CoronaVac jabs to be used in 3 to 17 age group.

Domingo said Pfizer submitted its application before Dec. 8 and it has been forwarded to the Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) of the Department of Science and Technology for evaluation.

“A quick look at their clinical trial data showed that their efficacy rate is about a little more than 90 percent – 90.7 percent … for children 5 to 7 years old,” Domingo said.

For Sinovac, the VEP is still requiring more clinical trial data from the Chinese jab maker. “I think the sample size included in the data they submitted is small so they are being asked for updated data… Once they submit the requirements, our experts will review them,” he added.

The FDA chief noted that mRNA formulation of the pediatric vaccines is “identical” with that for adults but for children, smaller dosage will be used per injection with a different amount of concentration “per ml (milliliter).”

The vaccine will be given in two doses but local experts are studying if the interval between two doses will be “three weeks, four weeks or eight weeks.” – Sheila Crisostomo, Elizabeth Marcelo