The government’s vaccine expert panel advised Filipinos against waiting for bivalent vaccines to arrive in the country and instead focus on getting boosted with currently available jabs that have been found to be as effective in combating COVID-19.
Dr. Nina Gloriani, the head of the panel, said vulnerable populations like the elderly and the sick stand to benefit the most from the protection given by the newly developed bivalent vaccines, which target both the original COVID-19 strain and its Omicron subvariants.
But she warned against solely pinning hopes on the arrival of the new jabs to fight the threat of the Omicron XBB subvariant and XBC variant, which have already been detected in the Philippines.
“That’s going to take a little longer,” Gloriani told ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo.
She said the more urgent threat is the waning immunity of Filipinos nearly a year since booster doses were made available.
“Waning immunity for COVID is fast — whether natural immunity or vaccine-induced, it takes four, five, up to six months. As time passes, more of our countrymen remain unboosted. So, we cannot wait for the bivalent vaccines,” she said in Filipino.
Gloriani added that the Department of Health (DOH) already has a plan for reserving shots of the bivalent vaccine for the Philippines. But they are set to be procured by early 2023.
The panel head also cited the finding of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) that there is no sufficient evidence yet of a substantial difference in the efficacy of the bivalent boosters over the monovalent ones currently in use.
This was why, she said, Filipinos should take advantage of the shots.
“The current vaccines still produce good results and protection when given as boosters. Let’s not wait for the upcoming vaccines because we do not know if they will arrive,” she said.
“If they arrive, well and good, they can have themselves updated to the newer version. But for now, let’s use what vaccines we already have,” she added.
While over 73.4 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated, only 20.4 million or over a quarter have received at least one booster dose as of Oct. 19, according to the DOH’s COVID-19 vaccine tracker.
Many Filipinos who opted not to get boosted said it has not yet been mandated by the government, unlike the initial dose.
Some say they have had no time to visit vaccination sites due to work.
Others fear side effects coming from misinformation about the side effects of vaccines.
Over 80 XBB Omicron subvariant cases and nearly 200 XBC variant cases have been recorded in the Philippines to date.
Experts hope more COVID vaccinations would help stem any increase in hospitalizations and deaths caused by the new variants.
Singapore, where cases of the variant have been rising, could be observed as a case study of XBB’s impact on a broadly vaccinated and boosted population.
The WHO earlier said it does not see a change in severity of COVID-19 worldwide, but it again reminded countries to remain vigilant and step up surveillance to deal with spikes in cases and hospitalizations.
With the start of the cold weather season in the Philippines and around the world, the global health body also warned COVID cases could increase due to more indoor activities and already relaxed health measures.
The independent OCTA Research Group said an increase in COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Region last month could have been caused by the XBB subvariant.
OCTA fellow Guido David recalled the transmission of the more transmissible Omicron variant in January, and the start of surge of the Omicron BA.5 and BA.4 subvariants in June.
“The wave was prolonged. It didn’t just take long, but it went down in August, and suddenly increased again in September… In our analysis, that increase in September was due to the XBB,” he said.
Currently, David said that the COVID-19 wave in NCR is already declining, with its positivity rate now at 12.9 percent.
The positivity rate refers to the percentage of people who were found positive for COVID-19 among the total number of individuals tested.
The DOH said there are localized community transmission of XBB observed in Western Visayas, and the XBC in Davao and Soccsksargen.
The DOH on Saturday logged 1,702 new COVID-19 cases even as the active tally dipped to 23,713.
The total COVID-19 caseload stood at 3,993,148 on Saturday, with 3,905,693 recoveries and 63,742 deaths.
NCR had the highest number of new infections in the past two weeks with 8,279, followed by Calabarzon with 4,428, Central Luzon with 2,550, Western Visayas with 1,564, and Davao Region with 1,435.