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Covid-19 vaccines in PH effective protection vs. variants: FDA

By Ma. Teresa Montemayor

June 22, 2021, 2:28 pm

<p><em>(PNA photo by Joey Razon)</em></p>

(PNA photo by Joey Razon)

MANILA – All Covid-19 vaccines available in the country are effective and can provide protection against all coronavirus variants, including the highly contagious Delta, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Eric Domingo said Monday as he urged the public to get their jabs.

In a briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte, Domingo said while there is a decreasing efficacy of vaccines as the virus mutates, vaccines still remain useful in protecting the population.

Currently, the government uses only four brands in its vaccination activities -- Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V.

Domingo said among the four brands available, only AstraZeneca and Pfizer jabs have available data on their efficacy rates against the new coronavirus variants.

Sa United Kingdom (UK) po kasi, sa England ‘no nagamit nila mostly Pfizer atsaka AstraZeneca and they did it quite early, at sila po ngayon ‘yong mayroong medyo (In United Kingdom, England, they used mostly Pfizer and AstraZeneca and they did it quite early, and they have the) data showing the effectiveness of the vaccines on both the UK variant and the Delta variant,” he said.

Data from Pfizer showed it has retained a high efficacy rate of 93 percent against the Alpha variant while its efficacy rate has gone down to 88 percent against the Delta variant.

Meantime, data from AstraZeneca showed its efficacy rate against the Alpha variant is 66 percent. Moreover, its efficacy rate against the Delta variant is 60 percent.

Domingo said there are ongoing studies on the efficacy of Janssen, Moderna, Sinovac, Sinopharm, and Sputnik V against the Delta variant although there is no data yet.

“But initial reports indicate that they are also useful, but of course we expect that it will be a little lower than the original efficacy doon po sa original na variant po ng ating bakuna (variant in the virus),” he added.

In the Philippines, there are 17 cases detected with the Delta variant as of June 21. (PNA)

 

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