The Covid-19 case rate in the Philippines remained low and manageable despite the spike being experienced in other parts of the world, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. revealed.
Galvez said that neighboring countries in Asia as well as those in Europe are suffering from sudden increase of cases which are believed to be caused by the stealth Omicron or other recombinant variants such as the Deltacron, or a combination of Delta and Omicron.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that the Philippines successfully managed its daily cases from 500 to 1,000 in the past several weeks now.
“South Korea, Vietnam, UK , France, and Germany’s COVID cases are on the rise while the Philippines was able to control its cases below 1,000 for several weeks now. According to the report of DOH Secretary Duque, we have less than 500 cases daily,” Galvez said during the Talk to the People public address of President Duterte which aired on Tuesday, March 22.
The vaccine czar cited several factors that could explain why the country’s pandemic situation remains manageable despite the rise in other parts of the world. One of this is the country’s use of different brands of vaccines.
The government uses a portfolio of vaccines which included eight brands: Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Sputnik V, Sinopharm, and Sputnik Light.
“Unlike other countries, they rely on only one platform like mRNA or inactivated platform. The Philippines have a portfolio of eight different types of vaccines using almost all of the various platforms, and we have proven that all of these vaccines are effective,” he said.
Another factor is the ”excellent” timing of the vaccination program which includes the booster shots.
“Our timing in vaccination is very excellent. We have done the massive vaccination at the time that there were surges and we immediately decided to administer boosters three months after the primary series,” Galvez said.
The national vaccination program was launched on March 1, 2021 and at the time, people were criticizing the government due to the slow rollout since there was limited supply of vaccines.
The vaccination program only began to smoothly progress when the bulk of the vaccines that were procured by the government started arriving in the third quarter last year – the same time that variants such as the Delta and Omicron from other countries reached the Philippines’ shores.
As of March 21, the government has fully vaccinated 65,284,130 individuals which represents 72.41 percent of the target population of 90 million population to be vaccinated.
Galvez also attributed the improved Covid-19 situation to the natural immunity that is now attained by the Philippines due to the emergence of variants that are not that severe and fatal.
“We suffered several waves of surges. In the end, nakatulong pala ito sa immunity (this helped in the development of our natural immunity),” he noted.
The Omicron variant, deemed highly infectious but not as severe as the Delta variant, sent the country’s Covid-19 cases to all-time high records in the latter part of 2021 up to January 2022.
Medical experts believe this contributed to the development of a natural immunity among those infected since they were able to create natural antibodies to fight the coronavirus.
Galvez also cited the Filipinos’ obedience to the health protocols such as the wearing of masks and the practice of social distancing.
But the vaccine czar warned that the public should not be complacent since the situation remains volatile and could escalate again if not properly monitored.
He advised the public to get booster shots to increase the efficiency of their primary dose vaccines. So far, only 11,576,397 individuals have received their booster shots out of the 65 million people that have been fully vaccinated.