Inquirer News

50% vaccine efficiency not enough, Zubiri says as new virus variant reaches PH

Alexander Magno
Zubiri

RECOMMENDATIONS TO SPEED UP TELCO APPLICATIONS: Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri asks National Telecommunications Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba whether the two laws, the Ease of Doing Business and the Anti-Red Tape Act, had helped reduce the voluminous requirements for telco service transactions in the country. Cordoba said there was a 600 percent increase in telco applications and towers in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Zubiri said Cordova could further lessen the requirements if he could come up with recommendations. “You can come up with recommendations to speed up the process or remove that process all together,” Zubiri suggested during the virtual hearing of the Committee on Public Services looking into proposals to renew the franchise granted to Dito Telecommunity Corporation, formerly Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc., and the granting of a franchise to a new applicant, Instant Data, Inc. Monday, December 7, 2020. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri underscored on Wednesday that COVID-19 vaccines with only 50 percent efficacy rate would not be enough, especially now that a new coronavirus variant from the United Kingdom had been detected in the Philippines.

“The more reason that we must get the most effective vaccines for our people and 50 percent efficacy of vaccines isn’t enough,” Zubiri said, partly in Filipino, in a text message.

“Let’s go with the vaccines that have finished Phase 3 trials because their efficacy rates are good —  Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Gamaleya, and Novavax,” the senator added.

Zubiri said science should guide the government in determining the safest, most effective and cost effective vaccine to buy  for Filipinos.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Department of Health (DOH) said the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) reported the detection of the new variant, known as B117, after samples from a Filipino who arrived from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Jan. 7 yielded positive genome sequencing results.

The patient with the UK variant is a male resident of Quezon City who departed for Dubai on Dec. 27 for businessc and arrived in the Philippines last Jan. 7 via Emirates Flight No. EK 332.

RELATED STORY

UK Covid-19 variant detected in PH

Exit mobile version