A fully-vaccinated priest visiting the Kalookan City Diocese died Saturday morning after suffering from a heart attack and eventually testing positive for COVID-19.
Fr. Manuel Jadraque Jr. of the Mission Society of the Philippines (MSP) "was found unresponsive and very pale" inside the tricycle he rode from Monumento to San Roque Cathedral before he was able to pay his fare, Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said in a Facebook post.
"He was clutching the 50-peso bill which he was going to pay the tricycle driver with. He was rushed immediately to the Caloocan City Medical Center and was declared dead on arrival," David said.
Jadraque, a 58-year-old priest who was also fondly called Fr. "Mawe," turned out positive for COVID-19 after David requested the hospital staff to take him for a post-mortem swab test as he was concerned that Jadraque's cause of death might be triggered by the virus.
"I called the MSP superior to break the sad news to him and he and his fellow MSPs were shocked because he seemed very healthy," he said.
"Because of earlier known instances of COVID-related heart attacks... I insisted on having Fr. Manuel submitted to a post-mortem swab testing," he added.
Jadraque already completed his Sinovac jab, according to David.
"Sadly, the test result came out this evening and he was found to be positive of SARS-COV-2. We have no way of finding out if the heart attack had been triggered by Covid despite the fact that he had been fully vaccinated already. We also do not know which strain of covid it was," he added.
This was the reason why the city's bishop called on the local government of Caloocan City to have Jadraque's "lab specimen submitted for genome sequencing to find out which variant had infected Fr. Manuel."
The incident also prompted the city's Diocese to place the church under "temporary lockdown" starting Sunday, July 25.
As of writing, more than 200 individuals already commented on David's Facebook post and mourned Jadraque's passing.
Meanwhile, a physician from the Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center reiterated that COVID-19 vaccines work, regardless of brand.
Dr. Anne Gabriel-Chan shared on Facebook some photos of the chest X-ray of four vaccinated and unvaccinated patients who were infected with the virus.
Three of those, who were fully vaccinated, were only mild to asymptomatic cases while the one who is not yet vaccinated experienced shortness of breath and was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).
“Yes you can still get COVID-19 even if you’re fully vaccinated but most are mild. You will be more protected and reduce the possibility of becoming severe/placed in an ICU. #vaccineswork,” she said, adding that no vaccine is “superior to the other.”
“Remember that these patients had different vaccine platforms and brands but all of them had mild to almost no symptoms at all,” she added.
“All of them have served its purpose — prevent severe infection. So instead of team Pfizer vs. team Sinovac — let our mindset be: whether vaccinated or not! So whichever will be available on your vaccination day, get protected before another surge comes up! Delta variant or not, this is still one of the most effective protection we can have!”