Prevent 80% of COVID-19 deaths by vaccinating 50-year-olds and up — expert

MANILA, Philippines — Vaccinating people aged 50 and above will prevent 80 percent of deaths related to COVID-19, an epidemiologist advising the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) said Wednesday.

Dr. John Wong, a member of the IATF’s sub-technical working group on data analytics, pointed out that even though Filipinos aged 50 and above compose only 17 percent of the population, they contribute 81 percent of the country’s COVID-19 deaths.

“Although the working-age population is most likely to be infected, the elderly are most likely to die,” Wong said during his presentation in an online town hall forum.

“Start with 50 and above because they have the highest risk and they have the greatest [risk]. Kasi vaccinating them alone can prevent 80 percent of the deaths. After you are almost done with that, then you can go in decreasing order by 10-year age groups,” he added.

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier said that lowering the death rate due to COVID-19 is one of the primary goals in the vaccine deployment program.

Wong also urged local government units to let people sign up by age. “My recommendation is that to make it easier for LGUs to sign up people, just do it by age. Kasi it’s much easier to verify than comorbidity or employment,” he said.

The Philippines has so far administered over 5.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of May 31. Of this number, over 4 million were given as first doses and 1.2 million were provided as second shots.

The country has so far confirmed a total of 1,235,467 COVID-19 cases, composed of 53,203 active cases, 1,161,252 recoveries, and 21,012 deaths as of June 1. Faith Yuen Wei Ragasa, Inquirer trainee

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