Pilipinas, hindi pa dapat magluwag ng health protocols kahit may bakuna na – WHO

MANILA, Philippines – Hindi pa inirerekomenda ng World Health Organization (WHO) na magluwag ang Pilipinas ng protocols at restrictions kahit nagsimula na ang vaccine rollout sa bansa.
Ayon kay WHO Country Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, dapat ay matuto ang bansa sa karanasan ng iba na naunang nagsagawa ng COVID-19 vaccination. Hindi pa rin, aniya, lubos ang proteksyon ng pagkakaroon ng bakuna upang maka-iwas sa sakit.
“Yes. There is the effort for us to roll out the vaccines as quickly as possible, and vaccinate a larger proportion of the population in a very impactful manner according to prioritization that we described,” ayon sa WHO opisyal.
“But that also needs to be the accompanying adherence of the protocol because if we don’t do that, we’ve seen surges in the countries as we roll out the vaccines. So let’s learn for that global experience and not make the same mistake,” dagdag nito.
Samantala, binigyang pansin din ng WHO ang pagkakaroon ng tatlong libong kaso ng COVID-19 kada araw na naitatala sa bansa.
Nguni’t ayon kay Abeyasinghe, hindi maaaring sabihing ito ay dahil sa community transmission na dulot ng umiiral na variants na unang natuklasan sa United Kingdom at South Africa.
“We believe that it’s not entirely being driven by the new variants because the number of cases detected and confirmed as suppose to the number of samples checked limited and so we still believe there is an opportunity to strengthen preventive protocols and ensure that we don’t see a need for continuous rise of transmission within the NCR,” pahayag ni Abeyasinghe.
Muli namang binigyang diin din ng WHO official ang kahalagahan ng bakuna upang mapababa ang mga kaso sa bansa.
Sa ibang bansa aniya gaya ng Israel, nakita ng WHO ang pagbaba ng severe COVID-19 infection cases at maging ng death cases dahil sa pagbabakuna ng kanilang mamamayan.
“We do see the impact of vaccines in countries like Israel where they vaccinated a very high proportion of the eldelry, the co-morbid and of course the healed,” pahayag ng kinatawan ng WHO.
“They are showing more than 90% decline in severe disease and deaths following two doses of vaccination. This is an important lesson for us to learn and probably duplicate in other countries as we roll out the vaccines according to the prioritization,” dagdag nito.
Batay sa assessment ng WHO, tumaas ang bilang ng mga healthcare worker sa Pilipinas na nagpapabakuna dahil may dumating nang ibang vaccine brand.
Nasa 4.5 million doses ng AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines at 117,000 doses ng Pfizer BioNTech ang inaasahang darating sa susunod na buwan mula sa COVAX facility. –MNP (sa ulat ni Aiko Miguel)