(Asian Tech Press) The Philippine Presidential Security Group (PSG) announced on Wednesday local time that 126 of its members have been infected with COVID-19 over the past week. These infected individuals have had no direct or close contact with the Philippine president, and the figure was down to 41 active cases as of Thursday.
Last December 28, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Edgard Arevalo had confirmed that some PSG members had been vaccinated with the inactivated COVID-19 vaccines developed by Chinese state-backed firm Sinopharm.
Arevalo added, “It is understood that PSG members were the first batch of AFP to be vaccinated due to the nature of their work assignments.”
Eric Domingo, director general of the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said in an online press briefing on Friday that no response has been received from PSG on their vaccination.
Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III, commander of the Philippine PSG, also acknowledged that some PSG members were vaccinated last December with the Sinopharm vaccine, while some were not.
Therefore, it is uncertain whether the PSG members who infected with the COVID-19 were injected with the Chinese vaccines.
Public information shows that the Sinopharm vaccine involved, which is not currently approved by the World Health Organization, is still being evaluated by the WHO for emergency use list, and the review process is expected to be completed in late April.
By the end of March, China had exported 115 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, including Sinovac and Sinopharm, according to Nikkei Asia.
However, the Chinese COVID-19 vaccines have been subject to some controversies due to a lack of scientific transparency in clinical trials and data.
In Kyrgyzstan, some doctors have refused to use the Sinopharm vaccine, according to Foreign Policy. And some countries with high vaccination rates of the Chinese doses, including the United Arab Emirates and Chile, are still experiencing growth or stagnation in new COVID-19 cases.
Egypt began using the Sinopharm vaccine in this January, and despite receiving 350,000 doses of the vaccine, some doctors, nurses and elderly people are still hesitant to vaccinate, citing concerns about its credibility, according to The Guardian.
In addition, Sri Lanka received 600,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine on March 31, but it was not approved for use, and those vaccines are only intended for vaccination of Chinese citizens in Sri Lanka, according to The Economic Times.
According to the latest news from Bloomberg, China has approved the third COVID-19 vaccine from Sinopharm for clinical trials.
