More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
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| https://mindanaotimes.com.ph/reports-of-another-covid-like-outbreak-false-doh/ |
THE DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) debunked reports of an “international health concern,” stating that the World Health Organization (WHO) has not confirmed such an epidemic.
According to Dr. Albert Domingo, the OIC assistant secretary and spokesperson of the DOH, said the Philippines is an active participant in the network of WHO Member States that follow the International Health Regulations (IHR).
The established system provides reliable updates about international health concerns. Philippine disease surveillance systems are in place and working.
“The DOH is actively verifying all information and will keep the public updated. Please do not share questionable websites or online sources. Let us not spread misinformation and confusion,” he said.
But who really knows? China is not very good at sharing information.
Firecracker injuries have been on the rise since the end of the pandemic.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2020215/firecracker-injury-rise-shows-lessons-never-learned |
While most Filipinos end the celebration of New Year’s Day with bliss, some don’t, especially those who end up in hospitals with second or third degree burns, blown off limbs, or severed fingers.
The use of firecrackers, especially at 12 a.m. on the first day of the year, is believed to ward off misfortunes, but again and again, they can be dangerous, with risks that can be serious or even downright deadly.
The Department of Health (DOH) saw a downtrend in cases of firecracker-related injuries a few years ago, with only 122 cases from Dec. 21, 2020 to Jan. 2, 2021, but as COVID-19 restrictions eased, cases are swelling again.
Based on data from the DOH, cases of firecracker-related injuries grew to 188 on Dec. 21, 2021 to Jan. 5, 2022; 291 on Dec. 21, 2022 to Jan. 5, 2023; and 307 on Dec. 21, 2023 to Jan. 5, 2024.
This year, 163 cases have already been reported from Dec. 22 to Dec. 30.
As pointed out by the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, the devastation that firecrackers can cause is serious and alarming as it can lead to burns, which may result in excessive scarring.
Cases related to the use of firecrackers can lead to loss of a finger as well as amputation of the hand or legs, and surgery. The smoke from firecrackers can also be dangerous to the lungs.
You could say the past few years have seen an explosion in injuries.
A pandemic era project is now being expanded to the Western Visayas.
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| https://www.philstar.com/the-freeman/cebu-news/2025/01/06/2412190/western-visayas-benefit-das-copra-meal-project |
Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. has ordered the expansion of the Protein-Enriched Copra Meal (PECM) commercialization project to Central Visayas’ neighboring region, Western Visayas, to boost local livestock production.
The PECM project was initially rolled out in CALABARZON (Regions IV-A) and SOCCSKSARGEN (Region XI) in 2022 as a response to supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
The DA noted that the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to disrupt global feed ingredient supply chains, keeping prices for essential commodities like soybean meal, feed wheat, and corn high.
Russia and Ukraine together account for about 30 percent of global feed grain supply, further exacerbating the pressure on feed prices.
According to the DA, the project is designed to mitigate the rising costs of animal feed as this uses copra meal—a by-product of coconut farming—as an affordable substitute for imported soybean meal, which has become increasingly expensive due to global supply chain issues.
PECM was engineered through a solid-state fermentation process, developed by the University of the Philippines-Los Baños’ Biotech Center, which enhances copra meal’s protein content to about 45 percent—comparable to soybean meal.
The enriched copra meal has been successfully incorporated into the diets of finfish and shrimp, with feeding trials showing that including 200 kilos of PECM per ton of finfish feed and 100 kilos per ton of shrimp feed leads to a 3.9 percent and 0.4 percent reduction in feed costs, respectively, compared to conventional commercial feeds.
With this, Laurel then ordered the expansion of the project to Western Visayas.
Copra mean is animal feed made from dried coconut.
The Philippine Ports Authority is expecting passenger numbers to exceed pre-pandemic numbers this year.
Busy local sea terminals saw growth in volume of travelers during the holidays and even early this month as passengers returned from vacations, according to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).
The ports regulator, in a statement on Monday, reported that passenger volume from Dec. 15 to Jan. 5 rose by about 7 percent to 4.67 million from 4.37 million in the same period in 2023.
This surpassed the initial estimate of 4.59 million passengers.
Most of the passenger movement was recorded in Batangas, with over 601,000 travelers.
This was followed by Bohol and Siquijor with 482,694 passengers and 433,282 passengers. Rounding up the top five are Davao with 442,929 passengers and Bicol with 312,530 passengers.
This year, the ports regulator projected passenger volume at sea terminals to exceed 85.4 million.
Achieving this projection will surpass traffic in 2019, or before the pandemic when mobility was curtailed. Back then, passenger volume reached 83.72 million.
Another statistic that life is back to normal. For now.
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