Some Cabinet, PSG members have received COVID-19 vaccine, Año confirms

(Photo by PEDRO PARDO / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año on Monday confirmed that some members of the Cabinet, as well as the Presidential Security Group (PSG) have been inoculated against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“I know some from the Cabinet and from the PSG [na nagpaturok ng bakuna],” he said in an interview on ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo.

(I know some Cabinet members  and from the PSG who were already received the COVID-19 vaccine.)

Año added that President Rodrigo Duterte has not been administered the COVID-19 vaccine as his doctors were against it.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (ALFRED FRIAS/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

Duterte the other day bared that a number of Filipinos have already received the COVID-19 vaccine from China’s Sinopharm.

“Halos lahat ng sundalo natusukan na. I have to be frank, I have to tell the truth…marami nang nagpatusok and lahat up to now wala akong narinig for the select few, not all soldiers, not all soldiers hindi pa kasi policy eh,” he said last Saturday.

‘Emergency use’ vaccine

Año did not say which COVID-19 vaccine brand was used but added that it was administered under an emergency use authorization (EUA).

“Yung mga gamot na ‘yan, tinatawag natin na may EUA ‘yan eh, ‘yung tinatawag na emergency use authorization. So kahit na hindi pa ‘yan formally and finally approved, in times of pandemic, pwede gamitin ‘yan ng health workers and frontliners,” he said.

(Those drugs have EUA, so even though they are not formally and finally approved, in times of pandemic, they can be used for health workers and frontliners.)

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

The Food and Drug Administration has yet to grant an EUA to a candidate COVID-19 vaccine. American drugmaker Pfizer is so far the only firm to have applied for a EUA in the Philippines.

Side effects?

Año confirmed that members of the military have indeed taken shots of COVID-19 vaccine, and some have experienced some side effects after the second dose of vaccine.

“Meron nga ho, I will confirm that pero hindi ko lang pwedeng sabihin yung pangalan nila unless sila mismo magsabi. But there are, kasi mga frontliners naman ito lalo na siguro sa PSG na sila yung nagpoprotekta sa Pangulo,” he said.

(There are those who have been inoculated, I will confirm that. I cannot just divulge their names unless they are the ones to reveal themselves. But there are, because they are frontliners, especially the PSG who are the ones protecting the President.)

“Nadinig natin parang ikalawang dose ay nagkaroon sila ng sore throat for a day or two tapos after noon wala na. Parang ‘yun lang ang naging side effect, okay naman daw sila,” he added.

(We heard that they experienced sore throats for a day or two. That’s the only side effect.)