ALL vaccines are effective even against Omicron variant.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Kathryn Chua Roa reminded the public that all vaccines, which are available and being administered in the Philippines, still serve their purpose in protecting a person from getting a severe coronavirus disease or even from death.
“Through vaccines, nagkakaroon ng antibodies ang katawan. Dito sa atin may mga cases tayo na kapag nabakunahan at na-infect ng Covid, short lang ang period of symptoms at mild lang din ang symptoms na nararanasan ng isang bakunado. Ito ang advantage kapag bakunado (Through the vaccines, the body gets to develop antibodies. Here, we have cases of vaccinated individuals who still get Covid but their symptoms were only experienced in a short period and these are just mild symptoms. This is one advantage of getting that vaccine),” Roa said.
She also highlighted the importance of getting a booster shot of Covid-19 vaccine, saying the level of antibodies is lessened through time, which also means that the protection that one gets from getting vaccinated is also lessened.
As of January 15, Davao Region recorded only two critical cases involving unvaccinated individuals. Most of the active cases now are also asymptomatic and unvaccinated.
Of the 818 mild cases, 590 of them are unvaccinated, while 223 are fully vaccinated and five are partially vaccinated.
Of the 34 cases with severe Covid-19, 17 of them are unvaccinated while 16 are fully vaccinated.
In Davao Region, the Department of Health regional office maintained that there is still no Omicron variant detected from the samples submitted for genome sequencing.
Roa also expressed that only through genome sequencing would detection of a variant be considered official and accepted.
She said, though, that Omicron variant may actually be circulating in the National Capital Region (NCR) as the number of cases grew exponentially.
“It’s also hard to detect an Omicron case just by the symptoms alone. Most of the symptoms of the ancestral variant and even of the Delta variant are also manifested in Omicron cases such as colds, sore throat, cough, fever, muscle pain, and headache,” Roa said.
She said the Omicron variant, as claimed by experts from other countries with high cases of Omicron, is highly transmissible and could infect many individuals even in a short span of time.
Roa said even if it is considered to cause mild symptoms, everyone should still continue practicing the minimum public health standards so as to protect most especially the senior citizens, the unvaccinated, persons with comorbidities and those with immunodeficiencies. (PIA)