AstraZeneca's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine can give protection against the severe effects of the illness, an infectious disease expert said Friday, March 5.
San Lazaro Hospital Infectious Diseases Head Dr. Rontgene Solante emphasized that it is important to get vaccinated against the disease, especially those in the priority sector such as the healthcare workers and the elderly people.
A member of the OCTA Research Group Fr. Nicanor Austriaco on Wednesday, March 3, said that the efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine against the South African variant of coronavirus "could be reduced from 70 percent to 10 percent."
Solante, meanwhile, cautioned the OCTA research team against giving such statements.
"If you read the statements and in fact, I'm going to the hospitals --- (some) are telling me, 'should I receive the Astra vaccines since I do not want to get the Sinovac, but there is this issue on South African variant,' but I always assure them we don't have problems with the South African variant," said Solante in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel on Friday, March 5.
"Just get the vaccine, the most important part is the willingness to get the vaccine.Yung mga variant na iyan doon na natin pag-isipan iyan later on (Let's think about those variants later), just get the vaccine," he added.
Solante said that the South African variant of coronavirus "is not a variant of concern as of this moment in the Philippines."
"We still need this vaccine and this vaccine is still a good additional vaccine for all Filipinos especially the frontline health workers, those with comorbidities, and probably those who are 65 years and above," he said.
"The point there in the WHO (World Health Organization) findings in that particular trial, it did not prevent the influence of mild to moderate COVID for those who had a South African variant but nobody did develop a severe COVID even with that South African variant, Looking at immunological insights, there is still protection," he added.
"And that's what we want, especially those for higher risk of mortality. The impact of preventing them from dying from hospitalization," he furthered.
WHO Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe also said on Thursday, March 4, that AstraZeneca's vaccine is effective against this particular variant.
“We still believe that the AstraZeneca vaccine is effective even in places where you have a large proportion of cases which could be attributed to the B1351 variant or the South African variant,” he said.
The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca arrived in the Philippines on Thursday night, March 4, through the COVAX facility, a global initiative aimed at securing equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.