MANILA - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday said only 167 individuals were still infected with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated against the virus.

As of August 1, 129 people who received 2 doses of Sinovac were still infected with COVID-19, while 34 people fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca were also infected with the disease, FDA chief Usec. Eric Domingo said.

There was also 1 person fully vaccinated with Pfizer who tested positive for COVID-19, he said in an online press conference.

Of these breakthrough cases, 3 died, data from the FDA showed.

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"Wala naman po talagang 100 percent efficacy na vaccine pero nakikita natin na napakalaki ng efficacy ng vaccines," he said.

(There is no vaccine that can provide a 100 percent efficaacy but we can see that the efficacy of vaccines are very high.)

FDA chief Eric Domingo says 129 people were still infected with #COVID19 after receiving 2 doses of Sinovac. Of these people, 3 died.

34 people fully vaxxed w AstraZeneca were also infected with the disease. None of these patients died.

1 fully vaxxed w Pfizer still had COVID19 pic.twitter.com/aNTlc8S53K

— Kat Domingo (@_katrinadomingo) August 13, 2021

These breakthrough infections as of August 1 account for 0.0018 percent of 9,115,963 fully vaccinated individuals, ABS-CBN Data Analytics chief Edson Guido said.

A lot of people who were inoculated with Sinovac tested positive for COVID-19 only because more Filipinos were jabbed with the Chinese-made vaccine, he said.

"That's 129 out of 5,093,246 individuals fully vaccinated with Sinovac or 0.0025 percent," he said.

These numbers are even smaller if we only take into account those who got COVID-19 more than 14 days after getting their second dose, he said.

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Several people still contract COVID-19 despite being fully inoculated against the virus because each person's level of immunogenicity is different, Domingo said.

"Hindi tayo pare-pareho ng reaction sa bakuna," the FDA chief said.

(We react differently to vaccines.)

"There will always be breakthrough cases. Hindi lang sa bakuna sa COVID kung 'di sa lahat ng bakuna sa lahat ng sakit (Not only with COVID vaccines, but with all vaccines for all diseases)," he said.

The FDA has yet to collate data on which COVID-19 variants were present in breakthrough cases, he said.

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The Department of Health noted that those who cotracted the virus despite receiving 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were asymptomatic patients or only developed mild symptoms of the disease.

"Ibig sabihin gumagana yung bakuna (This means vaccines work). We are protected from hospitalization and dying," Health spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

Those who were hospitalized due to adverse events after vaccination may claim up to P100,000 from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp (PhilHealth), she said, noting that these events are "rare."

Those who will be proven to have died or were disabled due to serious adverse events following immunization are entitled to a lumpsum of P100,000 from PhilHealth, she said.

As of August 11, 2021, the Philippines has fully vaccinated 12 million people or 16.98 percent of its target to attain her immunity against COVID-19.

At least 14.1 million others have received their first dose.

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