MANILA - The release of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine which especially targets the Omicron variant may be "too late" for countries with an ongoing surge of cases, World Health Organization (WHO) country representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said on Wednesday. This, after Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Albert Bourla announced on Monday their redesigned Omicron-targeted Covid-19 jab may be ready for launching in March. "If you are talking about managing the spread of the [Omicron] variant in countries that are already seeing a surge, it may be too late," Abeyasinghe said during a televised public briefing. He noted that the existing jabs under the WHO Emergency Use Listing can prevent severe disease and death from Covid-19. "So, the new type of vaccine, what we are looking for is a vaccine that can prevent people from getting infected with mild symptoms," he said. "We are not quite sure whether Omicron specific vaccine will be useful for new future varia
MANILA - The Philippines logged 32,246 new coronavirus infections and 5,063 recoveries Wednesday. The latest Covid-19 bulletin showed that there are 208,164 active cases while total recoveries rose to 2,797,816, or 91.5 percent of 3,058,634 infections since the pandemic started in March 2020. Wednesday's tally of fresh cases is higher than Tuesday's 28,007. Out of the active cases, 197,091 are mild, 2,872 are moderate, 6,435 are asymptomatic, 1,468 are severe, and 298 are critical. "Of the 32,246 reported cases today, 31,793 (99 percent) occurred within the recent 14 days - Dec. 30, 2021 to Jan. 12, 2022," the Department of Health said. The regions with the most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 17,902 or 56 percent of new infections; Region 4-A (Calabarzon), 6,838 or 22 percent; and Central Luzon, 3,268 or 10 percent. The death toll is now 52,654 with 144 new deaths, representing 1.72 percent of overall cases. "Of the 144