MANILA – The Philippines will go on with the rollout of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine amid reports that some of those inoculated with in the European nations experienced blood clot.
The Department Health (DOH) and the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), in a joint statement on Friday, said they will still include AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccines in the nationwide inoculation drive saying there is no indication for the country to stop the rollout of the vaccines.
“The benefits of vaccination continue to outweigh the risk,” the joint statement said.
The DOH and FDA acknowledged that some countries stopped the inoculation of the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical-based vaccines as a precautionary measure.
The joint statement further said that according to the European Medicine Authority, there is currently no indication that vaccination has caused the development of blood clots, which is not listed as a side effect of the vaccine.
On Thursday, Denmark, Iceland, and Norway suspended the use of AstraZeneca, while a number of European Union nations stopped the use of doses that came from a particular batch of AstraZeneca vaccine after a 49-year-old woman in Austria died of multiple thrombosis.
In the country, AstraZeneca was the most preferred vaccine by the healthcare workers as Sinovac’s COVID-19 shot has a low efficacy rate to medical workers who frequently encounter with COVID-19 patients.
The country has received 525,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines supplied by global initiative COVAX Facility. 4.5 million more doses are expected to arrive at the country by April or May./PN
