FILE PHOTO: Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana is the director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the National Institutes of Health at the University of the Philippines Manila. (Photo from an RTVM video)
An infectious diseases expert on Friday advised the public against getting a second COVID-19 booster shot as it was still uncertain if that would offer enough benefits.
Dr. Edsel Salvana, a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the Department of Health (DOH), said one booster dose would certainly increase defense against infection and also slightly increases protection against a severe case.
He said experts believed that a second booster shot could only offer a small increase in protection against severe disease.
The administration of the second booster dose would have to be studied further, Salvana said.
“As of now, our recommendation is to not get a fourth dose, do not get a second booster for now, because its efficacy is not yet certain versus any possible side effects,” he said at the Laging Handa briefing.
Moreover, many people have yet to complete their primary two-dose or single shot vaccine, and this should be the priority, he said. Salvana said ongoing studies to produce the next generation of vaccines or reformulated shots to combat variants of concern could be better candidates for the second booster shot, if this was ever recommended.
Targeted sector
If a second booster dose or fourth shot would be offered, it might only be given to a targeted sector, such as health-care workers highly exposed to the coronavirus, and to the vulnerable population, he said.
What is more important is for people to get their primary vaccine, which would give significant protection against severe disease, Salvana said.
The government is aiming to ramp up its vaccination rate, as its third nationwide campaign reached only around 3 million individuals, below its 5-million target, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
The government may hold a fourth national vaccination drive, she said.
“This is a strategy of the government for us to be able to mop out all of those who are still not vaccinated or all of those who are still yet to receive their booster doses,” Vergeire said.
She also said more than 329,000 children in the 5 to 11 age group received their first dose.
Vergeire urged those who were eligible for a booster shot to get it as soon as possible to increase their protection against COVID-19.
Risk of stillbirths
She also encouraged pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to avoid the risk of stillbirths.
“COVID-19 infection could affect the placenta of a pregnant woman, which could result in fetal injury or the death of the fetus in the womb,” Vergeire said.
She cited the British Medical Journal report on 5,000 unvaccinated pregnant women who were afflicted with severe COVID-19 and experienced complications that caused critical care admissions, stillbirth and early neonatal deaths.
Vergeire also said the antibodies that the mothers would get from the vaccine could be passed on to their babies.
As of Feb. 17, the Philippines has 62.199 million fully vaccinated individuals, 9.489 million of them had received their booster shot.
The National Capital Region (NCR) remained at low risk for COVID-19, according to independent pandemic monitor OCTA Research, as the DOH reported 2,232 new infections on Friday.
OCTA fellow Guido David said NCR’s average daily attack rate (Adar) was 3.45 with a 0.20 reproduction number and a health-care utilization rate of 26 percent.
Adar refers to the average number of new cases in a population of 100,000. For OCTA, the acceptable Adar is below 10.
The reproduction number refers to the number of people infected by a single case. A reproduction number below one indicates that the transmission of the virus is slowing down.
New cases in Metro
The DOH said NCR had the most number of new cases with 378, followed by Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) with 236 and Central Visayas with 212.
The country’s positivity rate was 9.1 percent based on 29,812 people tested on Wednesday.
The positivity rate refers to the percentage of the tests that came out positive for coronavirus. The World Health Organization’s benchmark positivity rate of below 5 percent, sustained for two weeks, indicates that virus transmission is under control.
The COVID-19 tally on Friday did not include figures from five laboratories which failed to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System, the DOH said.
The national caseload reached 3,648,925 on Friday.
The DOH said 2,131, or 95 percent of the new cases, occurred from Feb. 5 to Feb. 18.
It said there were 65,796 active cases. Of the total, 60,252 were mild, 946 asymptomatic, 2,869 moderate, 1,422 severe and 307 critical.
Recoveries
The 3,010 recoveries brought the total number of survivors of the severe respiratory disease to 3,527,720.
The death toll rose by 79 to 55,330, with 16 of the deaths reported to have occurred this month and the rest between July 2021 and January 2022 but were reported only on Friday.
The DOH said 32 percent of COVID-19 intensive care unit beds in Metro Manila were in use (against 31 percent nationwide).
Also in use in NCR were 25 percent of isolation beds (27 percent nationwide) and 25 percent of ward beds (21 percent nationwide).
The DOH said 21 percent of ventilators available for Metro Manila COVID-19 patients were in use. It was 17 percent for the whole country.