New strain stalks PH southern backdoor

THE provincial government of Sulu has called on the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) for assistance following reports that the new strain of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has been detected in Sabah, Malaysia.

Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan on Friday told The Manila Times that he had instructed his staff to consult the task force on how best to handle the emerging situation.

Sabah is less than 29 hours by boat from the Sulu archipelago.

“We have a porous coastlines and a vast Sulu Sea between us and Sabah, and only the national government is equipped with the capacity and logistics to put in place and in operation, safeguards and preemptive measures called for,” Tan said.

The Sulu Task Force Covid-19 is calling on the public not to panic and to heed advisories only from official sources.

“With our frontline partners, we will intensify our monitoring and utilize all material and human resources at our disposal to assure our constituents, as we reiterate our call to them to avoid speculations and the spread of fake and harmful mongering,” the governor said.

President Rodrigo Duterte cut short his Christmas break in Davao City to discuss with health experts the new Covid strain that supposedly originated in the United Kingdom.

The meeting is scheduled in Malacañang today, December 26, according to Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, chairman of the Senate Health and Demography committee and a close confidant of the President.

Earlier, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the Senate’s Committee of the Whole would start on January 11 its public hearing on the administration’s preparations for the mass immunization for Covid-19.

Last Wednesday, Duterte approved the suspension of all flights from the UK to the Philippines from December 24 to 31 to prevent the entry of the new coronavirus variant known as B.1.1.7.

Passengers from the UK who are on their way to the Philippines and those who arrived 14 days before December 24 must undergo strict quarantine and testing protocols at the Athlete’s Village in the New Clark City in Clark, Pampanga.

The variant is said to be spreading 70 percent faster than strains.

UK researchers discovered the variant after collecting samples from infected people in southeastern England.

Since then, Australia, Denmark and The Netherlands have also reported cases of the variant.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri stressed that in the search for the best Covid-19 vaccine for Filipinos, safety, efficacy, pricing, and ease of distribution and implementation must be considered.

“All these factors must be harmonized to make sure we deliver to our people the vaccine that is cost effective but is efficient and deliverable,” the senator said in a statement.

He added that the plan to get a vaccine with only a 50-percent efficacy rate is totally unacceptable and a total waste of funds and resources.

Zubiri was alluding to the vaccine developed by the Chinese drug company Sinovac Biotech.

“Again it means one out of two Filipinos could still be infected which is delikado lalo na sa (dangerous for) senior citizens, frontliners and those with co-morbidities. Totally unacceptable, period!! Buti pa ‘yung mga Russian vaccine (The Russian vaccine is better) that have a 91 percent efficacy rate. We should be looking at those vaccines instead,” he said.

Two congressmen also questioned the government’s inclination toward the Sinovac Biotech vaccine.

“Why settle for this ‘pasang-awa’ (borderline passing rate) kind of vaccine when we can get more efficient ones at a lower price?” Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said.

He noted that based on a Senate hearing, Sinovac was at P3,629.5 the most expensive vaccine in the market.

The price for Astrazeneca vaccine is P610 for two doses, Novovax costs P366; Pfizer, P2,379; Moderna, P3,904 to P4,504; Gamaleya, P1,220; and Covax, P854.

“Sinovac is at the top 2 on the most expensive Covid-19 vaccines. With the limited budget we have for the vaccine if placed at P82.5 billion would mean that only 22,730,403 of our countrymen would be vaccinated and it is at a lower efficacy rate at that,” Gaite said

Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas, meanwhile, demanded a full report from the government of its review of Sinovac.

“The Duterte administration’s continued preference for China-made Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines must be thoroughly questioned,” she said.

Bakit tila may pa-Aguinaldo ang Tsina kaya nagpupumilit ang gobyerno sa bakunang mahal pero nangangalahati lang ang pagiging epektibo (Why does it seem like China had a gift for the government, hence the reason they are insisting on a vaccine that is costly, but with only half the efficacy)?” she added.

WITH DARWIN PESCO AND DIVINA NOVA JOY DELA CRUZ