Do not dilly dally, have yourself vaccinated or else be overtaken by coronavirus disease (COVID-19) variants.
This was the call made by Dr. Nina Gloriani, who heads the vaccine expert panel of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to the public,
as the government is due to receive the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines donated by the Chinese government.
She said the public should take seriously the threats posed by the new COVID-19 variants.
“Kailangan po natin magpabakuna as fast as possible kasi meron na pong variants na rin. Ang sagot po dyan ay kailangan mataas ang immunization coverage natin and faster na natin maachieve para makuha na natin ang herd immunity. Kung maghihintay pa po tayo, ma-oovertake tayo ng virus, variants especially (We need to be vaccinated as fast as possible because we have new variants. The answer to that is we need to increase our immunization coverage and have it achieved faster so we can have the herd immunity. If we will wait, we will be overtaken by the virus, especially the variants,” Gloriani told ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo in an interview.
The DOST official said they anticipated that second generation vaccines will be produced by vaccine developers following the emergence of the new COVID-19 variants.
She explained that the available vaccines developed by different pharmaceutical firms were considered as the first generation vaccines.
“Huwag na po tayo magpatumpik tumpik pa..Meron naman po tayo assurance na sila ay safe and effective kahit 50 percent , approved pa rin po ng WHO (World Health Organization) 'yan (Let us not dilly dally..We already have an assurance that they are safe and effective even it has 50-percent , it was approved by WHO),” she said.
“Take them as they come but of course kung meron kayong choices at available, wala na pong pipigil pero kung ano po ang meron, magpabakuna na po tayo para hindi tayo ma-overtake nitong variants na sinasabi natin (Take them as they come of course, if you have choices and available, you will not be stopped from availing them, have yourself vaccinated with vaccines which are currently available so that we will not be overtaken by the variants,” Gloriani said.
The Department of Health (DOH) has recorded 62 cases of United Kingdom (UK) variant of COVID-19 in six regions.