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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Expert weighs need for COVID-19 booster shots for health workers who received Sinovac jab

Expert weighs need for COVID-19 booster shots for health workers who received Sinovac jab

Published Sep 16, 2021 01:54 pm

A member of the Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) is weighing the need for booster coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for frontline health workers who received Sinovac jab.

(ALI VICOY / MANILA BULLETIN)

In an interview with CNN Philippines, Dr. Rontgene Solante, who is also an infectious diseases expert, noted that Sinovac's efficacy wanes after six to eight months.

"For those fully vaccinated with Sinovac at least six to eight months after receiving the second dose, another dose of the vaccine can be given to maintain that protection," Solante said.

"In some countries now they are also giving the third dose of Pfizer or Moderna in immunocompromised individuals or those who are elderly. These are the specific population that we anticipated that there's also waning immunity compared to the general public," he added.

Solante said a third dose is "important" to protect immunocompromised individuals and elderly persons from severe COVID-19 from more infectious variants.

"Our finding was that the third dose of Sinovac is still enough and good to maintain protection after getting the two doses six months ago," the expert noted.

"We need to find data yet that Sinovac and then shifting to a booster with another platform will work. I know it will work but we need evidence, we need data for us to really concretize the particular mix and match of Sinovac and another dose of mRNA ," he added.

Solante said some countries such as Thailand and Indonesia have started using mRNA vaccines like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna as boosters.

Related Tags

booster shot covid-19 Sinovac covid-19 vaccine
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