Baguio City To Continue Astrazeneca Vaccinations

BAGUIO CITY(April 10, 2021) — Baguio City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña said that the city government will push through to its plan to use the Covid-vaccine Astrazeneca  purchased by the city that is expected to be delivered here by June.
This, dela Peña declared despite the earlier pronouncement of health authorities to suspend the use of Astrazeneca to women aged 60 and below.
De la Peña insisted that the investigation on the reported side effects of the vaccine to the persons who will be given such is still ongoing.
They have not received any report of health workers experiencing severe side effects after they were vaccinated with the said vaccine here,  the Baguio City official said.
He admitted though that fewer astrazeneca vaccines were used compared to Sinovac in the city.
AstraZeneca has indicated to Baguio City via a statement that it is aware on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) letter to the Department of Health (DOH) recommending that the use of the Astrazeneca vaccines on women aged 60 and under be refrained because of the reported blood clotting.   “On April 7, 2021, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) completed their assessment of extremely rare blood clotting events with low platelets from over 34 million people vaccinated with Astrazeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines in the UK and EU.
Overall, both of these reviews reaffirmed that vaccine offers a high-level of protection against all severities of Covid-19 and that these benefits continue to far outweigh the risks,” its statement read.
Astrazeneca also vowed to continue to work with the Philippine FDA to answer any questions that the agency may have.
Artemio A. Dumlao