Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Presidential Security Group (PSG) chief Jesus Durante told the state-run People’s Television Network, this despite the palace spokesman’s earlier claim that he had yet to receive the second dose of a China-made coronavirus vaccine.
“We never put our guards down from the very beginning. And we are proud to say that the President remains safe from the virus,” he said.
Mr. Duterte received his second dose of the vaccine developed by Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd two weeks after he got his first shot, Mr. Durante said. This means he would have received his second dose on May 17, something that the president’s spokesman, Herminio L. Roque, Jr., was apparently unaware of.
On June 8, Mr. Roque said the 76-year-old President had yet to receive his second shot because he was waiting for the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to authorize the Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use. On June 24, Mr. Roque said he would try to find out whether Mr. Duterte had already received his second dose.
Mr. Duterte received both his first and second shots long before the use of the Sinopharm vaccine was authorized by the FDA. The FDA cleared Sinopharm for emergency use only on June 7.
When asked by reporters on Fridaytoday to clarify whether Mr. Duterte already received his second shot, Mr. Roque said: “Gen. Durante has personal knowledge of the second shot. It was given after EUA was granted to Sinopharm.”
Authorities had earlier said that the first dose received by Mr. Duterte on May 3 came from a batch of 1,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine that Beijing had donated to the Philippines. At that time, the donated Sinopharm vaccines had not yet been allowed for emergency use in the country. After a public outcry over his vaccination with an unauthorized vaccine, Mr. Duterte said he was giving the unused shots back to China.
The use of Sinopharm has been controversial since last year when the president announced that the PSG had been vaccinated with smuggled vaccine. The FDA has been trying to investigate the smuggling, but has faced a “black wall.”
COVID-19 cases up by 6,812
Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DoH) reported 6,812 coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing the total number of cases since the pandemic started in 2020 to 1,385,053.
The death toll rose by 116 to 24,152, while recoveries increased by 2,867 to 1,305,608 million, it said in a bulletin.
There are currently 55,293 active cases according to the DoH, 4.6% of which are asymptomatic, 90.8% of which are mild, 1.35% of which are moderate, 1.9% of which are severe, and 1.3% of which are critical,
It said 19 duplicates had been removed from the tally, 12 of which were tagged as recoveries. Sixty-one recoveries were reclassified as deaths.
All labs were operational on June 23 and all labs were able to submit their data, the DoH said. — Kyle Aristophere Atienza