Seniors priority for J&J Janssen jabs – DOH
FILE PHOTO: Vials labeled “COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine” and syringe are seen in front of displayed Johnson&Johnson logo in this illustration taken, February 9, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
The Department of Health (DOH) said the Janssen vaccines of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) should be administered exclusively to the elderly population, as they “continue to be at risk of severe COVID-19 or hospitalization.”
The country faces the threat of a surge of the more contagious Delta variant of the novel coronavirus since the DOH reported 11 local cases of the variant over the weekend.
Amid that development, the Philippines received a total of 3.2 million Janssen vaccines donated by the United States and delivered through the COVAX global vaccine pool.
Advisory
In a July 16 communication, the DOH advised government hospitals to prepare against a variant-driven surge and said the single-shot “J&J vaccines [are] to be used solely on A2 to prevent hospitalization and deaths.”
A2 refers to senior citizens as they rank second in the government’s five priority groups for vaccination.
Despite that advisory, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said, when reached for comment on Sunday, that the Janssen vaccines may also be administered to the A3 priority group, or people with comorbidities.
Hot spots first
Cabotaje said the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) would initially allocate 100,000 Janssen vaccines per region. The undersecretary heads the NVOC.
Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday said the government should roll out the vaccines in COVID-19 hot spots, especially those with recorded Delta variant cases, so the country could swiftly mitigate the threat of this more infectious strain.
“We need to prioritize [the Janssen rollout] in areas where there are Delta variants, because it’s only one dose. This means 3.2 million people will already be fully vaccinated with this,” Robredo said on her Sunday radio show “Biserbisyo.”
“We need to get ahead of transmission in these areas through inoculation,” she added.
Robredo reminded the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) that the country’s health-care system would not be able to handle surges of the Delta strain if it becomes the dominant strain here.
“We need to get ahead of this fast,” she said. “Even though we have cases now here, we can still mitigate it through vaccination.”
But the NTF had also said it aimed to prioritize areas classified as high risk and densely populated, as well as those geographically isolated and disadvantaged.
In its advisory on Thursday, the task force also directed the regional and local vaccination centers to “strictly prioritize” those who remained unvaccinated under the A2 and A3 priority groups.
Priority areas
The NTF said that as of Wednesday, only 2.6 million seniors, who make up 31.9 percent of the A2 group, and 3.3 million of the A3 group, or 46.74 percent, were inoculated with a first dose.
According to the task force, some 5.8 million under A2 and 3.7 million under A3 remain unprotected.
“We reiterate that COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility must be utilized on a priority basis to complete the vaccination of priority group A1 (health-care workers) and increase coverage in priority groups A2 and A3,” the NTF said.
“We also reiterate … [the need to] deploy posthaste all available vaccines in order to speed up the rate of vaccination and expand our coverage especially given the threat of the new COVID-19 variants,” it added.
