President Rodrigo Duterte is willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in public in a bid to boost confidence in vaccines, Palace spokesman Harry Roque said Monday.
Roque confirmed that Duterte will get the vaccine jab publicly after announcing his preference to have it done in private.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte agreed to be vaccinated in public if there is a “public clamor” for him to do so.
He added that Duterte and other top officials would be vaccinated early to boost public confidence in the vaccine, and not because they are VIPs.
In the government’s priority list, senior citizens aged 60 and above fall under the “A2” cluster or second in line to receive Covid-19 vaccines.
UK variant case linked to MRT worker
One of the 19 new UK coronavirus variant cases is linked to an employee of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3, the Department of Health (DOH) revealed on Monday.
During a virtual briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire described the person as a 46-year-old female Pasay City resident whose son is an MRT-3 employee.
The woman tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Jan. 25 and is currently under home quarantine.
The DOH’s Metro Manila office is conducting further investigation into the case.
Stiffer penalties sought for fake test results
A congressional leader has filed a bill imposing stiffer penalties for people found falsifying COVID-19 test results.
“Falsification per se is not the issue here, but the corresponding risks it poses for public safety,”
Deputy Speaker and Valenzuela Rep. Wes Gatchalian said.
“Though falsification of COVID-19 test results may seem like a trivial procedural matter to some it may actually and recklessly endanger the lives of the people these offenders may interact or come into contact with,” he added.
The lawmaker cited as example the three women in Caloocan who were caught selling fake COVID-19 test results in July last year as well as the six Boracay tourists who submitted falsified test results to be able to enter the island on Feb. 3. Half of the six later tested positive for COVID-19.
Indemnification law pushed
SENATOR Christopher Go on Monday said he will ask President Rodrigo Duterte to certify as urgent the proposed COVID-19 Vaccine Indemnification Fund Law, which provides compensation for those who experience severe side effects from COVID-19 vaccine.
An indemnification law is a prerequisite for the release of vaccines under the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility. The absence of such a law has already delayed the first batch of Pfizer vaccines.
Go said the National Task Force (NTF) and government finance managers are already attending to this matter.
He acknowledged, however, that the source of such an indemnification fund has yet to be identified.
PH logs 1,685 new cases
The Philippines logged on Monday 1,685 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 550,860, as six laboratories failed to submit their data on time, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.
There are 27,588 active cases, which is 5 percent of the total number of cases. Of the active cases, 86.6 percent are mild; 6.9 percent are asymptomatic; 2.8 percent are critical; 2.8 percent are severe, and 0.86 percent are moderate.
The DOH reported two new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 11,517, which is 2.09 percent of the total cases.
The DOH also reported 14 new recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 511,755, which is 92.9 percent of the total cases.
PhilHealth to study indemnification
Officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will meet on Thursday to discuss possible compensation package for COVID-19 vaccine recipients who will suffer serious side effects, PhilHealth president Dante Gierran said Monday.
At the Laging Handa briefing, Gierran assured the public that PhilHealth has funds to cover the treatment of vaccine-related injuries.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. has been calling on Congress to pass an indemnification law, which he said was required by COVAX, the globally-pooled vaccine procurement and distribution effort co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), the GAVI Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
He said Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine could have been delivered to the country as early as last Friday if the Philippines had its own indemnification law.
Almost all PGH workers sign up for jabs
About 94 percent of employees at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) have registered for the COVID-19 vaccination, a hospital official said Monday.
Some 5,640 health workers and non-medical personnel out of 6,000 potential recipients at the state-owned hospital have given their consent to receive the anti-coronavirus shots, hospital spokesman Dr. Jonas del Rosario said.
“Others have medical conditions. Others wanted to wait longer. Others have certain views on the vaccine that we can’t change,” Del Rosario said in an interview on ABS-CBN Teleradyo when asked why others opted out of the program.
Del Rosario, who caught COVID-19 last year, has been announced to be the first person to receive the vaccine.
Tourists charged over fake test results
The Department of Tourism has filed charges against the six Manila-based tourists nabbed last month for falsification of swab test results.
In a news release issued Monday, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat lauded the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the local government units of Aklan province and Malay municipality for reinforcing the regulations and health and safety protocols set by the Inter-Agency Task Force.
The department also welcomed a DILG directive to the Philippine National Police to arrest and prosecute individuals who are forging their swab tests.
Bill on LGU vaccine purchases gets nod
A panel in the House of Representatives has approved the tax provision of a bill filed by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco authorizing local government units (LGUs) to directly purchase COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers without having to go through the long process of a public bidding.
The House Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, said
Section 6 of House Bill (HB) 8648 or the proposed Emergency Vaccine Procurement Act of 2021 provides tax exemptions for the procurement, importation, storage, transport, distribution, and administration of COVID-19 vaccines by LGUs.
These vaccines will be exempted from customs duties, value-added tax, excise tax, and other fees provided that the shots to be acquired by LGUs “shall only be used for their residents and constituents, and not for commercial distribution.”
