DOH: Not enough proof of herd immunity in Cebu City

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday disputed a Cebu City health official’s recent pronouncement that the city population had shown signs of herd immunity against COVID-19.

“Currently, there is not enough evidence to show that those who have recovered from COVID-19 and have developed antibodies are protected from being infected again,” the department said when asked to clarify remarks recently made by its Central Visayas director Jaime Bernadas.

In an interview last month with the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, Bernadas cited an antibody test conducted around that time among 2,191 vendors of the city’s Carbon Market.

The test found 47.48 percent, or 1,047 of the vendors, developing the immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody. Antibodies develop in a person’s system following infection and recovery.

Vaccination

“This is very significant because more and more people have now responded to the exposure of the virus, which means we are on the road to achieving ‘herd immunity,’” Bernadas said in the interview, which the government-run Philippine News Agency (PNA) quoted in its report on Oct. 14.

The PNA report is still accessible in the website of the DOH.

The DOH stressed that herd immunity is achieved by communities through vaccination.

Herd or population immunity is a concept in vaccination wherein enough people in a specific area are protected against an infectious disease.

In the case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, the department said herd immunity can be reached if around 60 percent to 70 percent of the population are immunized.

Still, the DOH said that even if a person has already recovered from COVID-19, he is not exempted from observing the minimum health protocols, such as wearing masks, practicing hand hygiene and cough etiquette, and keeping a distance of at least a meter.

Earlier, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a strategy of achieving herd immunity without a safe and effective vaccine was “morally unconscionable and unfeasible.”

“Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic. It’s scientifically and ethically problematic,” Tedros said in a briefing last month.

“Not only would it lead to millions more unnecessary deaths, it would lead to a significant number of people facing a long road to full recovery,” he added.

The WHO chief also said it remains unknown how long a person’s immunity against COVID-19 lasts.

There have been reports of reinfection in various countries, with some patients experiencing a more severe illness the second time around.

Tedros pointed out that until a vaccine becomes available, governments as well as the public “must do all that they can to suppress transmission” of the virus.

Virus case update

“Letting the virus circulate unchecked therefore means allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death … Allowing a dangerous virus that we don’t fully understand to run free is simply unethical,” he said.

On Saturday, the DOH recorded 2,157 new cases, bringing the national tally to 393,961.

Quezon City reported the most number of new infections, 115, followed by Davao City (107), Rizal (105), Bulacan (102) and Cavite (82).

An additional 252 patients recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of survivors to 350,216.

The death toll, however, increased to 7,485 as 24 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.

The deaths and recoveries left the country with 36,260 active cases, of which 83.7 percent are mild, 10 percent asymptomatic, 2.3 percent severe and 4 percent critical.