SUMMARY
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It’s been over a month since the Philippines started to feel the impact of the Delta variant and while there may be some signs that cases could be decreasing, experts say it’s still too early to tell if the overall picture in the country shows a slowing down in reported infections.
Here’s what we’re watching this week of September 20, 2021:
No rest in sight
Researchers say COVID-19 numbers are showing the health situation could be improving after weeks of logging several record-breaking figures. But even so, it’s no time to let up. Indicators that track the health system’s capacity, number of tests coming back positive, and daily case load remain too high for comfort.
- Let’s not “normalize” the thousands of cases we’ve been seeing daily, said Biomathematician Dr Jomar Rabajante of the University of the Philippines COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team.
- How high is high? The positivity rate is still at about 25% – way above the 5% threshold recommended by the World Health Organization.
- Intensive care units across the country are under immense pressure with 77% of total beds occupied. That makes for a “high-risk” classification by DOH standards, but health workers on the ground have had no relief since cases started to climb significantly over a month ago.
- Outside the National Capital Region, hospitals in many provinces and regions are in their bleakest phase yet with more facilities running out of rooms, supplies running low, oxygen slowly shorting, and patients waitlists growing longer across the country.
- As the government tries experimenting with new quarantine protocols, we learned from the country’s surge in July to August 2020, that health workers in the front lines “are the first to witness failures in our strategies.”
According to the Department of Health (DOH) it’s difficult to say if cases have already peaked in the current surge. The next few weeks are worth watching as the success – or failure – of an experimental localized lockdown system in Metro Manila will determine if the implementation of quarantine restrictions will change for the rest of the country.
Booster debate
An advisory panel to the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) recommended against the use of COVID-19 boosters for most adults, but voted to recommend an additional shot for those at high risk of contracting severe disease and people aged 65 years or older. The FDA and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now decide whether or not to adopt that recommendation.
The development is significant for other countries that have yet to decide on the booster question. Hours of deliberation among key experts in the US tackled findings from data gathered in Israel – where boosters have been widely rolled out – and from vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna, among many others.
- One major issue of the debate today is whether an additional dose for vaccinated adults is needed at this phase of the pandemic.
- “The cumulative data so far suggest that only older adults will need boosters,” said the New York Times‘ summary of the key meeting.
- The FDA panel’s recommendation for a smaller subset of people pushed forward the booster debate, but one question yet to be answered in detail is who might count as “high risk.”
- STAT News tracked the FDA panel’s meet with a rundown of the most important questions tackled and analysis of vaccine data so far. Read it here.
- As discussions continue to unfold, scientists are trying to answer more key questions on vaccines, like whether or not a third shot – not a booster – should actually be the final dose for a COVID-19 vaccine regimen.
- Dr. Stanley Plotkin, a towering figure in the vaccine world, said, “Calling the third dose a booster is immunologically incorrect and also gives the wrong impression that somehow the vaccines failed when they could not really have been expected to give a long-lasting immunity from the first doses,” STAT reported. More on this here.
In the Philippines, expert groups have held a series of meetings on the issue, but no decision on the possible use of boosters in the country has been announced.
Experts from both independent groups and panels guiding the government said that the question on boosters aside, government should still already be preparing for the continued rollout of vaccines beyond 2021, including those for adolescents.
Don’t miss this: Marathon congressional hearings on the government’s spending for pandemic items continue this week, but the House of Representatives and the Senate appear to be on two different tracks.
In the House, lawmakers gave the floor to the Duterte administration in an attempt to drive the narrative that no “overpricing” of items or corruption was found in official Commission on Audit (COA) reports on the DOH and Procurement Services of the Department of Budget and Management.
Senators, meanwhile, have uncovered how various government processes were flouted and how billions were given to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, a small firm that lacked the capability and credibility to be awarded P10 billion in pandemic contracts. This week, they’ll probe deeper into Pharmally’s financials.
Catch up on developments from previous hearings here:
- ‘Who instructed you?’: Pharmally’s advance delivery surprises PS-DBM staff
- Pharmally executives buy luxury cars after bagging pandemic contracts
- Gordon claps back at Duterte: ‘You are a cheap politician, Mr. President!’
- Senate to probe deeper into Pharmally financials
- In DOH probe, congressmen hand the mic to Duterte gov’t
– Rappler.com
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