MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) will study the possible shortening of the the interval between two doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, after the United Kingdom reduced the same from the previous 12 weeks to eight weeks.
The UK government earlier reduced the interval between two doses for those aged 50 and above and the clinically vulnerable in order to give them maximum protection against COVID-19 in light of the spread of the virus variant first detected in India.
“Ngayon, doon sa nangyayari sa UK, shinorten nila para mas mabilis ang pagbabakuna or pagfully vaccinate ng mga tao. Pag-aaralan natin, kasi itong pinapatupad natin is base sa ebidensya na sinasabi that you get a higher efficacy when you give it at a longer period of interval,” Department of Health Undersecretary and spokesperson Rosario Vergeire said in an online press briefing on Friday.
(Because of what is happening in the UK, they have shortened the interval in order to hasten the full vaccination of people. We will study that too. We are implementing the interval based on evidence that you get a higher efficacy when you give it at a longer interval.)
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire (Daphne Galvez/INQUIRER.net)
“Pag-aaralan din ‘yan. Tingnan natin in the coming weeks kung ano ang sasabihin ng ating mga eksperto,” she added.(We will study that. Let us see in the coming weeks what our experts will say about this.)
The Philippines is currently implementing an interval of 12 weeks for two doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.