Those waiting for Sputnik V 2nd dose might get vaccinated anew with different brand —FDA

The national government is looking into vaccinating again those who could not get a second dose of the Russian-made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine due to supply issues, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Wednesday.

Vaccine mixing for Sputnik V was previously raised as Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute is having difficulties delivering the second-dose vaccines. The Sputnik V vaccine is different from other brands because its first and second dose have different components. 

In a radio interview, FDA Director General Eric Domingo said one way to address the matter is to allow those who are still waiting for the second dose to get inoculated with two doses using another brand.

"Isa po iyan sa kino-consider, either another brand [para sa second dose] o talagang babakunahan with another brand ng complete doses ulit," he said.

(We are considering either they receive another brand [for second dose] or they will get complete doses again using another brand.)

A shipment of Sputnik V second component vaccine doses was supposed to arrive on August 13, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said.

The FDA had said that studies should first be conducted before using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as a second dose for Sputnik V.

The National Task Force Against COVID-19 on Monday said as of August 15, a total of 27,806,881 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered.

The number of fully vaccinated individuals reached 12,565,017. Meanwhile, the number of first doses that have been administered stood at 15,241,864.

The country had an average of 475,304 daily administered doses in the past week, just below the 500,000 jabs per day target of the government.

Malacañang on Wednesday vowed to improve the pace of COVID-19 vaccination in the country. This was after a Social Weather Stations survey conducted from June 23 to 26, 2021 showed 50% of Filipinos said the pace of COVID-19 vaccination is slow. —KG, GMA News