MANILA, Philippines — The reported resurgence in COVID-19 cases in other countries may be due to a false sense of security and not because of vaccine brands, Malacañang said Thursday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said this as he answered a question on the reported resurgence of COVID-19 in countries that mostly use COVID-19 vaccines that came from China.
“‘Wag na muna natin tanggapin ‘yang konklusyon na nagkakaroon ng resurgence sa mga bansa na ginagamit predominantly ay Chinese-made vaccines,” he said in a Palace briefing.
(We should not yet accept the conclusion that countries predominantly using Chinese-made vaccines are having a resurgence.)
He noted that even countries using Western-made vaccines are experiencing a resurgence.
“I don’t think na may kinalaman ‘yung bakuna sa resurgence, kung hindi, siguro nagkakaroon sila ng false sense of security dahil marami nang nagbabakuna at nabakunahan, ay baka nagpapabaya na sila sa mask, hugas, iwas,” the Palace official said.
(I don’t think the vaccine has anything to do with the resurgence of cases. Maybe the countries are having a false sense of security because they have vaccinated a large portion of their population and they could be becoming more lax on health protocols such as wearing face masks, washing of hands, and social distancing.)
The Philippines has so far received 7.5 million doses of Chinese drug firm Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine, CoronaVac, including 1 million doses that were delivered on Thursday.
CoronaVac makes up the bulk of available vaccines in the country.