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(SunStar) THE Department of Health (DOH) announced for the second straight day below 20,000 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), with 15,789 infections added to the country’s tally.

The positivity rate also went down to 35.8 percent from Tuesday’s (January 25) 37.2 percent, based on the 48,725 samples tested last January 24.

The DOH said the 15,789 new cases announced Wednesday brought the country’s total caseload to 3,475,293, of which 230,410 or 6.6 percent are active or currently sick.

The health department recorded on Tuesday, January 25, 17,677 additional infections.

It said Wednesday that of the active infections in the country, 6,902 patients were asymptomatic, 218,711 were mild cases, 2,982 were moderate, 1,507 were severe and 308 were in critical condition… Read More

(BusinessWorld) THREE more patients infected with the highly mutated Omicron coronavirus variant have died, bringing the total to five, Philippine health authorities said on Wednesday.

“We have five recorded deaths,” the Department of Health (DoH) said in a Viber group message. “Three were seniors and all have comorbidities.”

One was partially vaccinated, another was unvaccinated, and the remaining three were still up for verification.

The Health department reported the first two Omicron deaths on Jan. 19. One of them was from Metro Manila and the other was from Central Luzon. Both were more than 60 years old, unvaccinated and had serious illnesses.

The Philippines, which is battling a surge in infections spurred by the Omicron variant, has detected 535 Omicron cases among sequenced samples… Read More

(**Agency**) THE coronavirus disease (Covid-19) reproduction in Metro Manila has dipped to below 1, which indicates the decrease in active cases, Octa research fellow Dr. Guido David said on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.

David said as of January 1, the reproduction number in the National Capital Region (NCR) was at .91, the first time since December 23, 2021.

“While this is good news and confirms a downward trend not just in new cases but also in active cases, we have to continue follow health protocols to prevent a reversal of the trend,” he said.

Reproduction number refers to the number of people being infected by one case. This is one of the indicators of Covid-19 trend.

The reproduction number was as high as six on January 2.

David said the reproduction number decreasing below 1 is correlated with a decrease in active cases, not of new cases.

He said this means that active cases may still increase even as new cases have started to decrease, “because active cases are a cumulative of new cases less recoveries and deaths.”

Duque earlier said that Metro Manila has been downgraded from critical risk classification for Covid-19 to high risk following a significant drop in its two-week growth rate from 7,225 percent to 65 percent… Read More

(BusinessWorld) THE PHILIPPINES will start vaccinating children aged five to 11 on Feb. 4, the country’s vaccine chief said on Monday night.

The first batch of vaccines for children will arrive next week, vaccine czar Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. told a taped Cabinet meeting with President Rodrigo R. Duterte. The Department of Health (DoH) would release the guidelines this week.

The US Embassy briefed local officials this month on how to proceed with the vaccination, he added.

Mr. Galvez said kids in the five to 11 age group would be given doses lower than the ones given out to children aged 12 to 17.

He said the vaccination of children would be in phases, adding that two sites would be set up per area in Metro Manila in the pilot implementation.

After the initial rollout, the vaccination of kids would be expanded to other sites in the metropolis and other regions, he added.

The country would get 780,000 doses of the pediatric formulation for Pfizer, Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 31, National Task Force Against COVID-19 consultant Ted Herbosa told a televised news briefing on Tuesday.

About 1.8 million more doses would be delivered a few days later, he added… Read More

(CNN Philippines) Metro Manila — A company linked to former senator and billionaire Manny Villar has gained the government’s backing to enter the television market using frequencies previously assigned to ABS-CBN.

From what it seems a revival of the company’s application filed in October 2006, Advanced Media Broadcasting System (AMBS) secured a provisional authority to operate a digital television broadcasting system in Metro Manila and Mega Manila using Channel 16 — almost two years after ABS-CBN lost in its franchise renewal push… Read More

ONLY two of four Philippine presidential candidates who spoke on national television at the weekend presented details of their action plan, according to political analysts.

They said Vice-President Maria Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo and Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson stood out in a GMA Network program where journalist Maria Jessica A. Soho asked the candidates questions.

“Both Vice-President Leni and Senator Lacson showed a more detailed understanding of many issues,” Maria Ela L. Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines (UP), said in a Viber message on Sunday.

She said Ms. Robredo answered the questions thoroughly and presented a detailed action plan. “However, given the limited time format, she was not given the time to elaborate on the nuances of her responses.”

Ms. Robredo vowed to prioritize job creation, healthcare and education if she becomes president. She also traced problems in the government’s anti-coronavirus pandemic response to leaders who think it’s not urgent… Read More

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 23) – Veteran lawmakers running in the 2022 senatorial polls emphasized the need for the country to forge miltary alliances with neighboring Southeast Asian countries and first-world nations to defend its sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea.

Former Senator JV Ejercito said that while the country must send its most modern military equipment in the disputed waters, they cannot match what China has.

Beijing refuses to honor Manila’s victory in the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling, which nullified the Asian superpower’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.

Ejercito added that military alliances with the country’s Southeast Asian neighbors and nations like the United States, Australia, and Japan are vital in maintaining South China Sea as a zone of peace and free travel… Read More

(SunStar) THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Sunday, January 23, 2022, that politicians and their supporters who will engage in any form of violence against media workers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“This coming election, let us all together ensure the safety of our media practitioners to spare and protect them from the wrongdoings perpetrated by politicians. Let us keenly look out for their protection from any danger that could prevent them from doing their work efficiently, effectively, and honestly,” DILG secretary Eduardo Año said.

“The media needs to be safeguarded against every threat of violence and other forms of peril that become even more prevalent during elections. They have an important job and this cannot be restrained by fear, harassment, or intimidation to tell the truth to the public,”he added.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has assigned a total of 1,899 police officers to serve as “media security vanguards” during the election period for the May 2022 national polls.

Año ordered the creation of media security vanguards following the request of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) in a bid to create safe and healthy spaces for media practitioners, recognizing the vulnerability of the said sector during the election period… Read More