The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday, April 10, allayed fears of those vaccinated with AstraZeneca jabs, saying that no adverse events were recorded in the country following the use of such vaccines.
The Health department on April 8 temporarily halted the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on persons below 60 years old following reports of blood clotting with low platelets on some people inoculated with the vaccine oversees.
“Iyon pong mga nabakunahan na ng AstraZeneca, hindi naman po kailangan mangamba (Those who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, there is no need to worry),” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press briefing.
“Unang-una, iyong adverse event na ito, wala pa ho tayong nanu-note na ganiyan dito po sa ating country kaya nga sinasabi natin precautionary measure lang ‘to (First of all, this adverse event, we have not noted anything like that here in our country so what we are saying is it is just a precautionary measure),” she added.
The health official said the country’s experts will study the reported adverse events, noting that health authorities are still awaiting the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the use of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“So for this precautionary measure, maybe it’s just going to last about two weeks for us to have all of these recommendations at kung positive naman po ang rekomendasyon, tayo po ay magtutuluy-tuloy dito sa pagbabakuna ng AstraZeneca (and if the recommendation is positive, we will continue with the AstraZeneca vaccination),” she said.
“Ang second dose po ng mga nabigyan na ng AstraZeneca would be around end of May pa or June kaya alam po natin na darating iyong AstraZeneca vaccines from COVAX and also iyong recommendation ng WHO aantayin natin para maituloy po natin itong pagbabakuna na ito (The second dose of those who have been given AstraZeneca would be around the end of May or June so we know that the AstraZeneca vaccines will come from COVAX, and also we will wait for the WHO recommendation so that we can continue with the vaccination),” she added.