PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Officials are monitoring a health care worker in Oriental Mindoro who exhibited adverse reactions to CoronaVac, the vaccine made by Chinese firm Sinovac and donated by the Chinese government.
The 59-year-old health worker in Oriental Mindoro Provincial Hospital (OMPH) suffered from hypertension, vomiting, seizure and unconsciousness five hours after getting injected with CoronaVac on Tuesday (March 9).
The female hospital employee, who had been sick with COVID-19 for more than 90 days, had a history of hypertension, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the Department of Health (DOH) Center for Health Development (CHD) in the Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan, or Mimaropa, region.
Dr. Mario Baquilod, CHD Mimaropa director, said the vaccine recipient was now under “management and monitoring” by local health authorities.
Baquilod said 1,747 people were injected with CoronaVac on Turesday in the region and only one, the hospital worker, showed adverse reactions. “We consider this as an isolated case,” he said.
“This reaction is very rare, but do occasionally happen in people with comorbidity,” Baquilod said.
He said vaccinators must increase patient assessment and screening before injecting them with vaccines “to ensure that they are qualified.”
The DOH CHD in Mimaropa said the case was reported to the DOH Epidemiology Bureau that is currently running case management and investigation to identify the link between the vaccine and the adverse reaction of the health worker.
DOH CHD Mimaropa also asked other officials to assess the occurrence.
Baquilod said CoronaVac is “safe and can provide effective protection” against SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
He said the DOH in the region “still recommends to continue the vaccination” using CoronaVac of 18 to 59 year-old recipients “to achieve protection needed by the health workers and the community in the fight against COVID-19.”