Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 23) — At least 18 of the Delta coronavirus cases in the country have not yet received their COVID-19 vaccines, prompting the Department of Health to highlight the importance of getting vaccinated as soon as possible.
Of the 47 total cases, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday said 18 have not yet been vaccinated, four have only received the first of two required dose, two are fully vaccinated, while the vaccination status of 23 others is still being checked.
DOH earlier said two of the three Delta deaths in the country were unvaccinated.
Vergeire said there is no clear data yet on the difference of the effect of the highly transmissible variant on vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, but she said early findings show that those who have received their COVID-19 shots are not as severely affected by the variant.
“Evidence across the globe, you will see that most of those vaccinated if they get infected are only getting mild infections. We are also seeing that here in the Philippines, kung saan ang fully vaccinated magkaroon man ng sakit, sila po ay having mild cases lang at easily recovers,” she said in a media briefing.
[Translation: Across the globe, you will see that those vaccinated who get infected only have mild infections. We are also seeing that here in the country. where those fully vaccinated who catch the virus only have mild cases and easily recover.]
A British study released on Thursday showed that completing the two doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine will prevent symptomatic disease from the Delta and Alpha variants.
The country confirmed the local transmission of the feared Delta variant after 12 more local cases were reported on Thursday. The DOH said of the newly-recorded cases, six were from Bataan, two from Laguna, one from Manila City, two from Pasig City, and one from Taguig.
The recent batch of whole genome sequencing does not include samples from the 11 COVID-infected Filipino seafarers on board MV Tug Clyde that traveled from Indonesia.
