Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), ordered on Wednesday, May 19, all police regional and provincial directors to start coordinating with the Department of Health for the identification of police camps that could be used as vaccination sites amid the the
(ALI VICOY / MANILA BULLETIN)
In an interview with ANC, Dr. Tony Leachon said the Philippines’ current rate of vaccinating 75,000 to 80,000 Filipinos daily will not be enough to achieve the target herd immunity by December this year.
He added that it could take up to five years for the country to inoculate 70 percent of its population.
“If we will consider the original plan of Secretary Galvez of having the herd immunity at around December of 2021, 70 million of the population, we will not be able to do that,” Leachon added.
He noted that the country has so far vaccinated 675,000 Filipinos or .61 percent of the population.
President Duterte delivers a public address on May 17, 2021 (Malacañang)
The latest appeal was made by President Duterte after asking his Cabinet members to avoid honoring him with titles usually suited for a god.
In a meeting with officials Monday, the President frowned on being called “Mahal na Pangulo” and “Ginoong Presidente,” insisting he was no god.
According to the President, while “ginoo” means “mister” in Filipino, it also means “god” in Visayan.
“May request lang ako. Hindi naman hindi ako nagbibiro pero just to para hindi ako ma-off guard sa huwag mo na lang gamitin ‘yang ‘Ginoong Presidente’ sir kasi ‘yang ginoo sa amin Diyos sa Bisaya (I have a request. I’m not kidding but just so I won’t be caught off guard, don’t use ‘Ginoong Presidente’ because ‘ginoo’ in Visayan is ‘god),” Duterte said in his remarks aired on government television Tuesday.
CHED: Big universities want to buy their own COVID-19 vaccines
May 18, 2021 3:45 PM PHT
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Prospero de Vera III said on Tuesday, May 17, that many big universities expressed interest in buying their own COVID-19 vaccines.
In a press briefing on Tuesday morning, De Vera said he referred them to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr for coordination of the procurement process and agreements with vaccine makers. In our meeting with them, many big universities indicated that they would like to procure vaccines and we referred them to the office of Secretary Galvez because his office is in charge of the coordination of the agreements so we leave that decision to the universities to procure, he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
President Rodrigo Duterte delivers a televised address on May 10, 2021 (Malacañang photo)
Duterte had to call and ask for help from Chinese President Xi Jinping at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This despite promising last year that the Philippines will have a better Christmas because the vaccines are already available for procurement. The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the country by the end of February. It was also a donation and not a government purchase.
“Ito for public consumption na ito. Tumawag ako kay President Xi Jinping, sinabi ko kasi ‘yong kasagsagan na ng COVID eh kung walang ‘yong walang dumating talaga, walang makapkap si Secretary (Carlito) Galvez, tumawag ako, sabi ko, (This is for public consumption already. I called President Xi, I told him because this is during the height of COVID and if there’s no there’s no arrival, if Secretary Galvez can’t find any, I said) ‘Mr. President, I would like to ask for your help. Until now,