More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
The public is eager to get vaccinated which is why many in Manila braved floods to get jabbed.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1462735/for-covid-jab-manila-folk-brave-flood-added-health-risks |
Neither rain nor flood dampened the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Manila on Wednesday, indicating Filipinos’ willingness to get the jab, but also presented a potential health risk from waterborne diseases.
Thousands waded through ankle- to knee-high floodwaters to get into San Andres Sports Complex, one of many vaccination hubs in the capital city.
Ana Michelle Malonzo, an employee of a fast-food restaurant, said she had no choice but to await her turn, even in the flood, because getting jabbed was a requirement for work.
Philip Tuliao queued for a CoronaVac shot in the rain. “I don’t mind getting wet as long as I can get a vaccine. I have this raincoat, anyway,” he told Inquirer Radio.
The city government allocated 2,997 doses of various vaccine brands to the San Andres hub for seniors, persons with health issues, workers and members of indigent communities.
“Rain and flooding will not stop us, just as COVID-19 doesn’t … rest,” Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said. “We can assess [the situation] later but rest assured the city government of Manila will not stop [the vaccination].”
But Dr. Rontgene Solante, an infectious diseases expert at Manila’s San Lazaro Hospital and a government adviser on COVID-19 vaccines, said local governments could suspend the rollout for a day if the situation warranted it.
“You can’t risk lives just to get vaccinated. With the ‘habagat’ and flooding, the next problem could be leptospirosis,” Solante said in a Viber message, warning of an increase in such cases in the next weeks due to the wet season.
Why didn't they postpone this event? You can't have people standing out in flood waters. Pretty ridiculous and dangerous. What this shows is that the people are not adverse to getting the vaccine. Why does the government think they are?
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148027 |
There is a need to encourage more Filipinos to avail themselves of the Covid-19 vaccine amid the threat of the highly contagious Delta variant, National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 medical adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said Friday.
Herbosa cited the necessity to vaccinate more people "so the country could stand up against the risks posed by the Delta variant" as health authorities detected 12 more local transmissions that raised the total cases to 47.
"Basta may coordination lang ang national at lokal, tuluy-tuloy itong vaccination drive natin, then we can fight ‘yung Delta (As long as there is a coordination between the national and local governments in the vaccination drive then, we can fight the Delta variant)," Herbosa said during the arrival of another shipment of Sinovac vaccines at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City.
Is there really a need to encourage people to get vaccinated when they are standing in floodwaters to get the jab? What's really needed are more vaccines to fill the need. And yet forced vaccinations are already being discussed it seems. The DOJ says they have to discuss this matter further.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1147900 |
Coercive vaccination measures, similar to the policies of other countries, will need thorough scrutiny before they can be implemented.
Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra issued the reaction on Thursday following a Twitter message of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., asking about the legal implications of schools requiring their teachers to be inoculated against Covid-19.
“(T)ough policy questions like these will most likely be discussed at the Cabinet meeting first,” Guevarra told newsmen.
“@DOJPH Help please. Need your opinion. Is it legal for schools to require teachers to vaccinate before letting them in the classroom when face to face allowed? Can they fire teachers who refuse for cock and bull conscientious reasons? I’m serious,” Locsin tweeted on Thursday.
Guevarra said Locsin’s question may have been triggered by the new policy in France that will require a vaccination pass for anyone entering a café, restaurant, shopping center, or hospital, or taking a long-distance train.
Mandatory vaccines are happening all over the world. Soon one might not even be able to enter a store without being jabbed. But hopefully that will not happen here.
The delta variant has the government scared. The IATF has decreed children are no longer allowed to go outside and some areas are going back under strict quarantine again.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1147871 |
The city of Batac and eight other towns in Ilocos Norte will be under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) starting Friday (July 23) until further notice to address its increasing cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The return of more than half of Ilocos Norte’s population to stricter quarantine measures has been imposed to limit the movement of people particularly in areas with high risk of infection such as in Batac and the towns of Bangui, Dingras, Dumalneg, Marcos, Pagudpud, Paoay, Pasuquin and Solsona.
“The Philippine National Police is hereby directed to lead in strictly monitoring compliance of the foregoing provisions, to be assisted by barangay personnel and other law enforcement agencies,” Manotoc said.
“The MECQ will only work when all residents will make it work also. It is not only quarantine that is important. It goes down to the grassroots, to the people, and to its implementation,” the governor said in a press conference.
It's absolute nonsense that the government keeps imposing and reimposing restrictive quarantines and then lays all responsibility on the public. People need to work and buy necessities. They can't keep locking people up inside their homes, restrict their movement with passes and checkpoints, and expect everything to go well.
Duterte has said that LGUs need to come up with better schemes to vaccinate people and not allow walk-ins.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/25/21/duterte-denies-covid-19-vaccine-shortage-in-ph-shuns-walk-ins |
President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday denied that there is a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines, saying local government units should instead improve systems in inoculation sites.
Duterte did not mention a specific area, but said that several local government units have been implementing "bull****" policies in vaccination sites.
(It seems that we do not lack vaccines.)
"The problem is for local government units to come up with a more sane process of vaccination than allowing people to queue as early as 4 in the morning and getting their shots at 9 in the morning," he said
Local governments should not entertain walk-in vaccinations, or cater to individuals who wish to be jabbed against COVID-19 but do not have a prior schedule for it, the President said.
(This setup, waiting as early as 4 in the morning, to me is bull**** actually when you do that to Filipinos.)
"I'd like to have a rule to encourage them to not use that kind of set up even if it is numbered or if it is just given to anybody who wants it," he said.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148173 |
It sounds like some Chinese were trying to take advantage of other Chinese.Four persons, including a former government witness, were arrested and sued by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for selling AstraZeneca vaccination slots to Chinese nationals in Pasay City.
In a statement on Saturday, the NBI said it filed criminal charges against Mary Rose “Rosebud” Ong; her brother, Peter Ong, of Kawit, Cavite; Warlito Dabuet Mabanan of Pasay; and Ferdinand Madrid Mabalo, a village secretary, also in Pasay.
Rosebud had testified in the infamous Kuratong Baleleng rubout case in the mid-1990s against then-Philippine National Police chief and now Senator Panfilo Lacson.
The Ongs and their cohorts were arrested in a sting operation on Friday.
How long do you think the lockdown will last? Until the end of the year? The whole world is opening back up with the vaccines and the Philippine government is saying they have funds for the pandemic for beyond 2022.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/796711/philippines-has-enough-money-for-covid-19-war-chest-beyond-2022-dof-claims/story/ |
The Philippines has enough funds for its COVID-19 war chest even after the term of President Rodrigo Duterte ends next year, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.
According to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, the government has exercised “fiscal prudence,” and the country will have enough buffers to sustain efforts moving forward.
“I don’t think we’re good only until six months. I think we are good beyond 2022,” Dominguez was quoted as saying to Duterte in an emailed statement from the DOF on Sunday.
OCTA Research on Tuesday called for "circuit-breaking" lockdowns as it said a surge in COVID-19 infections has begun in Metro Manila where the highly transmissible Delta variant may be playing a factor.
The call came as authorities detect more cases of the Delta with local transmission and as President Rodrigo Duterte warned Monday a return to the lockdowns of 2020 is possible.
"Right now, it's official: we are in a surge here in the National Capital Region," OCTA fellow Ranjit Rye told a government briefing. "We can't disregard or not pay attention to this increase."
He said Metro Manila's reproduction rate is now at 1.33 from the 0.6 just last month. The figure refers to the number of persons a COVID-19 positive individual can infect.
The Department of Health on Monday acknowledged that the capital region is seeing an increase in cases, but cautioned against using the term "surge" as it maintained this has not been observed yet.
"We need to have anticipatory, preventive, [and] circuit-breaking lockdowns," Rye continued in mixed English and Filipino. "If we do this in the next two weeks, we will not only bring down cases and deaths but also save the economy."
A preventive lockdown won't save lives or save the economy. The economy is already screwed and the virus has an over 90% survival rate. It is not clear what the fatality rate for the Delta variant is but with many getting vaccinated it is going to be low. But the vaccination program in the Philippines has been relying heavily on Sinovac and a new study shows that Sinovac antibodies reduce drastically after 6 months.
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| https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/antibodies-sinovacs-covid-19-shot-fade-after-about-6-months-booster-helps-study-2021-07-26/ |
Antibodies triggered by Sinovac Biotech's (SVA.O) COVID-19 vaccine declined below a key threshold from around six months after a second dose for most recipients, although a third shot had a strong booster effect, according to a lab study.
Chinese researchers reported the findings from a study of blood samples from healthy adults aged between 18-59 in a paper published on Sunday, which has not been peer reviewed.
Among participants who received two doses, two or four weeks apart, only 16.9% and 35.2% respectively still had neutralising antibodies above what researchers regard as a detectable threshold level six months after the second shot, the paper said.
Those readings were based on data from two cohorts involving more than 50 participants each, while the study gave third doses of the vaccine or placebo to a total of 540 participants.
Researchers said it was unclear how the decrease in antibodies would affect the shot's effectiveness, since scientists have yet to figure out precisely the threshold of antibody levels for a vaccine to be able to prevent the disease.
It would appear that foisting Sinovac on the population was a really bad idea. There are so many problems with the vaccine program. For one thing you can still get the virus. 82 cops who were vaccinated are now infected. For another there are not enough vaccines in the nation to vaccinate everyone and yet the city of Lapu Lapu will be requiring a vaccination card to enter public markets and stores starting August 25th.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148451 |
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan on Tuesday said his executive order requiring residents to present a vaccination card in entering public and private markets and other establishments is meant to entice them to get inoculated against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Chan admitted in a radio interview that the city has a low vaccination turnout and he sees the need to bolster efforts to reach the 70 percent population protection.
On Monday, he issued Executive Order 2021-040 imposing stricter measures amid a surge in coronavirus cases and placing the entire city under month-long modified general community quarantine until Aug. 25.
He, however, said the executive order that will require residents entering markets, convenience and department stores to present their vaccination card, will take effect on August 25.
“We will wait until August 25. Let’s balance if the number of our residents who will get vaccinated. Let’s us wait and see, it’s not yet final as we will evaluate the turnout in our vaccination centers,” Chan said.
The mayor was reacting to netizens' social media comments on the new measure, saying it will bring them hardship in accessing basic and essential goods amid the pandemic.
Don't think this kind of law will not be implemented nationwide soon. DILG Secretary Año's response is quite telling:
(The time is not yet right for this kind of policy because it's still discriminatory and very prescriptive for those not vaccinated.)
Año stressed that the country still lacks enough vaccine supply and has yet to attain "population protection" as it is focusing vaccinations in specific areas and inoculating the most vulnerable.
The time is not YET right for this kind of policy. But it's time will sure come and soon.
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