DOH recommends flu, pneumonia vaccines to prevent COVID-19 complications

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health is recommending the use of flu and pneumonia vaccines to prevent the additional complications from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Thursday.

In an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel, Vergeire was asked if being vaccinated against flu and pneumonia will help in preventing complications from COVID-19, as vaccines against the virus have yet to be finalized and made available to the public.

“Agree po kami diyan (We agree with that). Actually we have that kind of program for children and for the elderly,” Vergeire said.

“’It can help you kasi para hindi nagkakaroon ng additional complication ‘yung mga mayroong may COVID-19. ‘Yung mga nagpapa-flu vaccine or pneumonia vaccine, we do not advise against it. We even recommend it because we have that program as well,” she also said.

(It can help you so that you will not have additional complications if you have COVID-19. We do not advise against vaccination against flu and pneumonia. In fact, we even recommend it because we have that program as well.)

Some patients with COVID-19 have had pneumonia or other symptoms of flu.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among the symptoms of influenza or flu are fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, and fatigue—which are highly identical to symptoms of COVID-19.

The country has so far logged a total of 58,850 confirmed cases of the disease, with an additional 1,392 fresh and late cases reported on Wednesday. A total of 20,976 patients have recovered while 1,614 have died.

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