The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines continue to provide protection among those vaccinated as it has yet to observe a waning effect in the vaccines.
FDA Director-General Rolando Enrique Domingo said that a small fraction among fully vaccinated individuals in the county experienced "breakthrough" COVID-19 infection.
With this, there is still no need to administer COVID-19 booster shots at the moment.
"At this time, wala pa po talagang pangangailangan na magbigay ng booster dahil hindi naman tayo nakakakita pa talaga ng waning effect po nung vaccine (At this time, there's really no need to give a booster because we haven't really seen the waning effect of the vaccine yet)," said Domingo during President Duterte’s public briefing aired on Tuesday, Oct. 12.
"Dahil kung at fifth month eh makita po natin na bumababa na yung kanyang protection, eh dapat dumadami po yung nagkakaroon ng breakthrough infection. Pero hindi pa po natin nakikita yun at this time (If the vaccines’ effect is waning, the number of breakthrough infections should be increasing by the fifth month. But we haven't seen that at this time)," he added.
It's been seven months since the government rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination program.
Based on Domingo's presentation to President Duterte, a total of 516 breakthrough infections were recorded so far.
" about .0025 percent out of 20.3 million fully vaccinated individuals, which is really a very, very low number," he said.
"So far, nakikita naman po natin na mayroon pa rin po talagang protection at hindi po natin nakikita na dumadami ang nagkakaroon ng COVID-19 sa mga vaccinated natin na 20 million nang sobra-sobra ang pagdami po (So far, we see that there is still protection and we do not see a high number of COVID-19 cases among the 20 million people already fully vaccinated)," he added.
Based on a survey it conducted, the Department of Health (DOH) recently said that the majority of healthcare workers are willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot---- if its use is already recommended by vaccine experts.
The country’s vaccine experts are not yet recommending the administration of booster shots. However, the DOH said it is not closing its door on the possibility of using booster shots.
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