(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the P4.5-trillion 2021 national budget that provides funds for the government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout and infrastructure development for next year. The signing ceremony happened on Monday, Dec. 28, attended by members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. “I stand before you today happy and proud to sign the 2021 General Appropriations Act,” President Duterte said in his message. -P72.5-B budget for COVID-19 vaccine […]
Tag: covid
PSG chief defends move to vaccinate close-in security of Pres. Duterte vs Covid-19
Chinese-made vaccines used not yet registered with FDA (Eagle News) –- The Presidential Security Group defended its move to have its members vaccinated against COVID-19, noting that it needed to ensure that President Rodrigo Duterte would be protected from the highly infectious virus. In a statement, PSG Commander Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III, said that who were vaccinated were the close-in security of the President since they should not pose as a threat to his […]
Covid-19 cases top 80 million worldwide: AFP count
PARIS, France (AFP) — More than 80 million confirmed cases of coronavirus have been detected worldwide since the pandemic began a year ago and 1.76 million deaths, according to an AFP tally based on official figures at 0800 GMT Sunday. In total, 80,145,185 cases and 1,756,060 deaths have been recorded. Last week, an average of 580,000 new cases were registered every day. Europe is the world’s hardest-hit region, passing the 25-million-case mark on Friday […]
Canada detects first coronavirus variant cases: health officials
MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — The first two cases of a particularly infectious coronavirus variant that recently emerged in Britain have been confirmed in Canada, health authorities said Saturday. “The cases are a couple from Durham with no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contacts,” Barbara Yaffe, acting chief medical officer for Ontario, said in a statement. The couple have been placed in isolation, according to the statement, the same day that Ontario reimposed a […]
Duque: 77 travelers from UK who entered PHL from Dec. 22-25 being monitored
Swab samples taken: 53 test negative; 1 test positive; 23 more awaiting results (Eagle News) – At least 77 travelers from the United Kingdom were able to enter the country before the Philippines imposed a travel ban of UK flights on December 24 after news of a highly infectious virus variant, B.1.1.7, that was first detected in Britain. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that the Department of Health is now closely monitoring these […]
From the lab to the jab: how BioNTech-Pfizer won the vaccine race
by Hui Min NEO with Yannick PASQUET in Hamburg and Michelle FITZPATRICK and Yann SCHREIBER in Mainz Agence France Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — It was over breakfast on the wintry morning of January 24 that Ozlem Tureci and her husband Ugur Sahin decided, “we need to fire the starting gun on this”. Sahin “had concluded from a publication describing coronavirus cases in Wuhan… that there was a high probability that a pandemic could be […]
Pres. Duterte directs creation of Task Force of medical experts to study infectious UK virus variant
Task Force to lead efforts to determine if variant B.1.1.7 has already entered PHL (Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte directed the creation of another Task Force, this time, composed of medical experts and scientists directed at studying the new emerging COVID-19 virus strains or variants that are said to be more infectious than before. In his meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Saturday night, Dec. 26, Duterte observed […]
Spain receives first Covid vaccine doses
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain received its first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Saturday, a day before the country is set to begin its immunisation campaign. A refrigerated truck arrived at Pfizer’s warehouse in Guadalajara in central Spain with the shipment, three days after it left the company’s factory in Puurs in northeast Belgium, the health ministry said in a statement. After repackaging, the vaccines will be redistributed to Spain’s 17 autonomous […]
First confirmed cases in Spain of British virus variant: regional govt
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Four cases of a coronavirus variant believed to be particularly infectious that recently emerged in Britain have been confirmed in Madrid, the regional government said Saturday, the first cases detected in Spain. All four cases involved people who recently arrived from the UK, the Madrid regional government’s deputy health chief Antonio Zapatero told a news conference. “The patients are not seriously ill, we know that this strain is more transmissible, […]
First Covid vaccine doses arrive in France
PARIS, France (AFP) — France’s first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine were delivered early Saturday to the Paris hospital system’s central pharmacy outside the capital, an AFP journalist saw. After more than 62,000 Covid-19 deaths in France, shots are set to begin with people in two elderly care homes on Sunday, the same day the rest of the EU begins injections. A refrigerated truck brought the roughly 19,500 doses from the Pfizer factory […]
PHL genome scientists on alert for UK variant as they analyze COVID virus strains in country
But UK variant not yet observed in present COVID virus samples in PHL, says PGC (Eagle News) – Philippine scientists are monitoring and checking if the reported virus strain in the United Kingdom, variant B.1.1.7, — said to be more infectious than previous COVID-19 mutations — has already reached the country. The scientists at the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) are tracing if the current variants of the COVID-19 virus include that of the UK […]
France confirms first case on its soil of British virus variant
PARIS, France (AFP) — France has confirmed the first case of a new coronavirus variant that recently emerged in Britain, its health ministry said. The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, has prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions on the UK. The first French case — found in a citizen living in Britain who arrived from London on December 19 — is asymptomatic and self-isolating at […]





