March 29, 2024

Only about 0.23 percent of the 85,814 fully vaccinated individuals in Baguio City have been infected with the Covid-19.
This was based on the monitoring and surveillance of the City Health Services Office as of Aug. 15 on “breakthrough cases” or those that have been infected with the Covid-19 after vaccination.
City Health Services Officer Rowena Galpo reported a total of 29 breakthrough cases among individuals before they had their second dose of vaccine of which 55 cases were infected with the virus 14 days after they were fully vaccinated and 140 individuals were infected after more than 14 days of being fully inoculated.
Getting infected despite being vaccinated is expected, according to Galpo, since no vaccine has 100 percent efficacy.  
She said the good news is that vaccinated individuals are protected from severe symptoms and therefore have a higher and faster rate of recovering compared to unvaccinated persons.
Galpo asked the public to continue adhering to the minimum public health standards regardless of vaccination status.
“Vaccines do not guarantee that we will not get the virus. Even with full dose, we can still get infected but with lower chance or probability because of the antibodies that we develop from the vaccines. Vaccines help us develop active immunity so when we are exposed to the virus, our bodies know how to fight the infection. But some vaccinated persons do not have enough immunity and this is why we still have breakthrough infections or persons fully vaccinated who still get infected,” explained Harold James Doroteo, technical officer on Covid-19 response of the World Health Organization Philippines.
“Vaccines lower the chance of developing severe symptoms and even death. There will still be deaths but most likely this is due to age risks and co-morbidities,” he added.
Doroteo said vaccines also prevent the virus from mutating to more virulent variants. 
“The more people vaccinated, the less likely the virus will spread and thrive, which results in its eradication,” he said. – Jessa Samidan