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Friday, March 29, 2024

‘Keep kids out from crowd if can’t fit mask’

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Infants and younger children who cannot wear anti-coronavirus masks should be kept away from malls and other crowded areas, Malacañang said Friday.

"Everybody must comply with the minimum public health standards, particularly the wearing of face masks," said Palace acting spokesman Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles.

He told a televised public hearing: "That is our responsibility when it comes to minors. If they cannot wear face masks because they are at a very young age, let us not bring them to closed, crowded places. Let's not force it.”

Nograles said establishments have a "right, responsibility andobligation" to bar the entry of individuals who cannot or refuse to follow COVID-19 rules, the implementation of which local governments must ensure.

Last week, Metro Manila mayors left possible mobility curbs on children up to the inter-agency task force on COVID-19. The task force will reply to NCR authorities in a letter, said Nograles.

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Meanwhile, no increase in the number of severe and critical cases admitted in hospitals nationwide over the past days was reported, the Department of Health said.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire made the remark when asked over the increase of severe and critical cases among the active tally nationwide from November 14 to November 24.

Of the 28,102 active cases on November 14, 10.5 percent are severe and 4.5 percent were in critical condition.

This went up to 14.4 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively, on November 24 among 17,864 active cases.

“First of all, there’s no increase in the severe and critical cases among our monitoring of the different hospitals in the country.),” Vergeire said in a live briefing.

Vergeire said the supposed increase was due to the lower number of active cases.

She also stressed that the reporting of severe and critical cases is not included in the time-based tagging, where mild, asymptomatic, and moderate cases are tagged as recovered after 14 days.

Vergeire said the DOH was now coordinating with local government units to fast-track the validation of severe and critical cases.

“They are left at the database when, in fact, when we started validating from the DOH side, we saw that many of them have recovered but the reports have not yet been submitted. So this is a function of reporting,” Vergeire said. (See full story online at manilastandard.net)

In related developments, the Philippines received Thursday evening 1,017,900 more doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines.

The doses, which were procured by the national government through Asian Development Bank, arrived via Air Hong Kong flight LD456 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Overall, the Philippines will be receiving 1,219,140 vaccines.

According to the Department of Health's latest tally, the Philippines has received 138,352,940 vaccine doses.

Of the number, 78,528,357 have been administered.

More than 34.5 million Filipinos have been fully immunized while some 43.8 million have been given at least one dose.

The government is pushing to inoculate around 15 million Filipinos during their three-day national vaccination drive from November 29 to December 1.

At the same time, the Food and Drug Administration said less than 0.10 percent out of the 59 million COVID-19 doses administered in the country resulted in adverse events following immunization.

FDA Director General Eric Domingo said the country recorded a total of 76,837 suspected adverse events as of November 21, most of which were very mild.

“So far our suspected adverse events are less than 0.10 percent of the total doses administered… and the majority of them are very mild,” Domingo said in an online forum.

Domingo said the most common AEFIs reported include an increase in blood pressure, fever, headache, pain on the vaccination site, malaise, chills, muscle pain, cough, dizziness, and tiredness. Domingo stressed that all vaccines were safe and effective.

Data showed that 94.96 percent or 72,963 reported non-serious adverse reactions while only 5.04 percent or 3,874 reported serious adverse reactions.

Domingo stressed that an AEFI was any untoward medical event that occurs after immunization and may not necessarily be due to the usage of the vaccine.

“What we just want to remind everybody, both the vaccinators and the people who receive the vaccines, that all the vaccines used in the national immunization programs are safe and effective,” he said.

“Before we allow them to be used, our experts looked through them and assured us that the benefits of using the vaccines outweigh the risk,” he said.

Domingo also called on vaccination sites to be prepared for possible adverse events during the national vaccination drives from November 29 to December 1.

“However, no vaccine is completely risk-free, and adverse events can occasionally occur… We have to be ready for that. There are going to be adverse events and the vaccination centers have to be ready,” he said.

As of November 21, more than 33.5 million individuals have been fully vaccinated against the illness while around 12 million are partially vaccinated.

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