The Department of Health (DOH) assured the public that all coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines work in preventing those inoculated from severe infection and hospitalization amid the news in Indonesia where vaccinated people still got infected.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained that studies globally manifested that Covid-19 vaccines administered in the Philippines are effective.
“Let’s get the vaccine, let us not be doubtful… ‘Yan pong mga bakuna ang isa sa mga susi para malabanan po natin itong pandemya,” she said in a briefing.
More than 350 Indonesian health frontliners who received the China-produced Sinovac vaccine still got infected with Covid-19, majority of them were sent to the hospital, according to Reuters.
However, Vergeira advised the public to interpret the report cautiously.
The health official also accepted the fact that there are “breakthrough infections.”
“Pero kailangan pa rin po nating malaman ang kumpletong datos para atin pong ma-analyze maigi,” she said.
She stressed that knowing the exact numbers of healthcare workers in Indonesia is of vital importance to assess the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine.
Getting inoculated still works even though there are new Covid-19 variants that have some impacts on vaccines, Vergeire noted.
As of June 14, over 5 million people in the Philippines have been vaccinated, more than 1.4 million of them are healthcare workers. Ronald Espartinez