Only 2-week wait before vaccination for COVID patients after recovery — expert panel

 (REUTERS/Yves Herman)

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s vaccine expert panel will recommend to the Department of Health (DOH) to allow those who contracted COVID-19 to get inoculated only after two weeks—not three months after recovery.

“Ang guideline ngayon sa NITAG (National Immunization Technical Advisory Group) is that from recovery, maghintay lang tayo ng two weeks. Hindi yung 90 days. You just have to wait for the two weeks na naka-recover yung pasyente,” Dr. Rontgene Solante, a member of the vaccine expert panel, said in an online media forum Tuesday.

(Under the NITAG’s guidelines, from the time of recovery, COVID-19 patients would only need to wait for two weeks. Not 90 days.)

Under the vaccine rollout guidelines earlier issued by the DOH, an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 will have to wait 90 days after their recovery before they are allowed to receive the vaccine.

“Gagawa pa lang kami ng letter  to make that recommendation not to wait for the 90 days for [COVID-19 recoveries] to receive the vaccine. Ako yung inatasan ni Ma’am Nina Gloriani, chair namin [to write the recommendation letter],” Solante said.

(We will make that recommendation not to wait for 90 days to receive the vaccine. I was assigned by our chairperson, Ma’am Nina Gloriano to draft a letter.)

“I [will] make the recommendation letter and then we can agree on it and then submit namin sa [we will submit it to the] Department of Health,” he added.

Nearly 800,000 Filipinos have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19, more than a month after the government kicked off its inoculation drive.

Among those vaccinated as of April 3 were 765,871 medical frontliners, 16,121 senior citizens and 13,288 individuals with comorbidities, Malacañang said in a briefing Monday.

Under the government’s vaccination priority list, healthcare workers are at the top priority, followed by senior citizens and those with comorbidities.

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