EDITORIAL – Waiting for bivalent jabs

As of March 23, according to the official tracker of the Department of Health, there were still 8,414 active COVID-19 cases nationwide, with 66,304 deaths. The 137 new cases recorded yesterday brought total infections in the country to 4,032,822 since Patient No. 1 from China’s Wuhan City was recorded on Jan. 30, 2020.

The coronavirus still lurks despite life around the planet easing to a post-pandemic normal. New variants of SARS-CoV-2 – more resistant to the original vaccines, and capable of penetrating even natural immunity acquired through a previous bout with COVID – continue to infect people. And while most of the new infections are mild, especially among the vaccinated, the subvariants are unpredictable and can still debilitate and kill.

Some sectors are more vulnerable to breakthrough and repeat infections: health frontliners, the ailing elderly and people with comorbidities and weakened immune systems. Many of these vulnerable sectors are waiting to get the next-generation bivalent vaccines before fully resuming normal activities such as travel and attending large gatherings.

The bivalent vaccines, which will be administered to those who have received a second booster, are designed specifically against the heavily mutated strains of the Omicron subvariant. The government had hoped to receive a donation of bivalent boosters through the COVAX Facility. The donation, however, can be availed of only by states that are still grappling with a serious COVID problem.

In the case of the Philippines, the “state of calamity” declared in March 2020 by then president Rodrigo Duterte allowed the country to tap the COVAX Facility for millions of free primary COVID vaccines and boosters. The COVAX Facility has also expressed readiness to replace millions of vaccine doses that are expiring this month. The state of calamity was extended by President Marcos until the end of 2022. After the period lapsed, however, the President said he no longer saw the need for another extension of the calamity state, despite suggestions to do so by health officials. Recently, he said the country had hurdled the pandemic.

Now the DOH is hard-pressed to come up with a legal framework that will allow the country to obtain the bivalent vaccines through the COVAX Facility even without restoring the state of COVID calamity. The government must intensify this effort if it stands firm on its refusal to give the state of calamity another extension.

Millions of Filipinos need and want those bivalent vaccines. The shots will bolster the defenses of the population, particularly the vulnerable sectors, against a virus that continues to infect, sicken and claim lives. The bivalent jabs will complete the path to pandemic recovery. Normalcy cannot be attained simply by refusing to acknowledge that the health situation is in a state of calamity.