Doctor shows how vaccines can protect vs. severe COVID-19

An infectious disease expert shared from her experience how different COVID-19 vaccines give protection to individuals.

According to Joseph Morong's report on "24 Oras" on Tuesday, Dr. Anne Gabriel-Chan showed some photos of the chest X-ray of four patients who were infected with COVID-19.

Three of the patients had mild to asymptomatic cases, while one patient experienced shortness of breath and was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Before getting infected, Chan said the three patients were fully vaccinated with different brands of COVID-19 vaccine. They were inoculated with Sinovac, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca.

Compared with the unvaccinated patient, Chan said the three developed relatively milder symptoms.

With this, Chan said these patients' cases prove that vaccines work in preventing severe COVID-19 regardless of the brand.

At the Philippine General Hospital, fewer health workers are getting COVID-19 since the start of the country's vaccination program on March 1.

From 106 health workers getting infected in PGH in June 2020, it has dropped to 28 in June this year.

"None of them suffered severe or critical COVID. Most of them are asymptomatic or mild. So I guess, we can only conclude that the vaccine works," PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario said.

A total of 17,202,421 doses have been administered as of July 25, the Department of Health said.

Of this number, 11,113,107 shots were for the first dose while 6,089,314 were for the second dose.

Vaccine brands delivered to the Philippines to date include Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, and Sputnik V.

The Philippines has so far reported 1,562,420 COVID-19 cases, of which 1,478,625 have recovered and 27,318 have died.—Ma. Angelica Garcia/LDF, GMA News