Vaccinated health worker who died of COVID-19 had comorbidities — NAEFIC exec

The health worker who received a coronavirus vaccine and later succumbed to COVID-19 had comorbidities and also contracted the respiratory illness last year, the National Adverse Events Following Immunization Committee (NAEFIC) said Thursday.

NAEFIC vice chairman Dr. Rommel Lobo said the fatality was a 47-year-old woman with known hypertension, diabetes, and bronchial asthma.

“The comorbidities present in this patient put her at risk for developing COVID-19,” he explained in a briefing.

Lobo said the health worker underwent COVID-19 testing on February 22 and was found positive. She took another test on February 23 and her results came back negative.

Citing an infectious disease expert who was consulted by the regional AEFIC, Lobo said the positive result on February 22 “could have been remnants of a previous infection.”

“Remember that the patient had a previous COVID-19 infection in 2020 and then just this year they did a determination, they said it was a remnant of a previous infection and it was deemed… she’s not anymore infective at that time,” he said.

The health worker received a Sinovac jab on March 4. Lobo said she had no symptoms upon screening.

“The patient might have been exposed to a [COVID-19-positive] individual that she had encountered and then she might be incubating or… asymptomatic at the time that she was vaccinated,” he said.

“We know for a fact that there is a certain period of incubation. Through the days that followed, she developed symptoms after vaccination.”

On March 8, the health worker tested positive for COVID-19 again. She was advised admission but initially refused.

On March 10, she was admitted to a hospital. She succumbed to COVID-19 on March 13.

“The COVID-19 vaccine does not cause, as we all know, COVID-19 disease because it’s an inactivated vaccine,” Lobo stressed. “None of the vaccines used in the Philippines can make people sick with COVID-19.”

No immediate protection

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Eric Domingo underscored that “during the first few weeks after you are injected with a vaccine, you have no protection.”

“This is the time that your immune system is trying to develop… Your risk of developing COVID-19, getting the illness, and getting severe illness and possibly dying from it is the same as a non-vaccinated person,” he said.

He urged the public to continue observing health protocols even after getting vaccinated.

Domingo also said the FDA has informed Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech about the recorded fatality through its local distributor in the Philippines.

“We’re continuously coordinating with the manufacturers… We are asking them for information if there are any similar events that happened in other countries,” he said, adding that Sinovac has yet to respond.

A total of 240,297 individuals have received their first dose as of Tuesday. 

Dr. Beverly Ho, director of the Department of Health’s Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Control bureaus, said the vaccination program will proceed with no changes since health screening protocols prior to inoculation are in place.

However, Lobo advised individuals who were infected with COVID-19 to wait three to four months after recovery before getting vaccinated.

“Those who have recovered, maybe after three months or four months they may now be a good candidate to be vaccinated, primarily because their antibodies have already waned down from the natural infection,” he said. — RSJ, GMA News