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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 26) The country should be inoculating over 350,000 persons daily to reach its COVID-19 vaccination target, a health expert said on Monday.
This number is more than seven times the nation s current daily vaccination capacity, which stood at an average of 44,000 last week and 47,000 the week before, based on data from the Department of Health. Three weeks ago, only around 23,000 people were being vaccinated daily. The basis for the 350,000 is if we started (the vaccine rollout) March 1, and we hope to achieve 70% vaccination of the population after a year, let s say February 28, 2022, that s the rate that we should be doing it, epidemiologist Dr. John Wong, who is also part of the national COVID-19 task force s subgroup on data analytics, said in a Palace briefing.
A health worker leaves a tent with COVID patients at a Manila hospital - AAP
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The Philippines has announced that its COVID-19 cases had exceeded one million, as the country sought to boost healthcare capacity to ease strains on hospitals and medical staff stretched by a second wave of infections.
The Philippines imposed a two-week lockdown of Manila and surrounding provinces late last month to try to stem a surge in cases blamed on more contagious COVID-19 variants.
But while daily infections have eased slightly they have still averaged more than 9000, against 5,525 in March and 213 per day in April 2020, health ministry data showed.
A man rides his pedicab with a slogan to remind people to wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Manila, Philippines on Monday, April 26, 2021. COVID-19 infections in the Philippines surged past 1 million Monday in the latest grim milestone as officials assessed whether to extend a monthlong lockdown in Manila and outlying provinces amid a deadly spike or relax it to fight recession, joblessness and hunger. - AP MANILA, April 26 (Reuters): The Philippines announced on Monday that its Covid-19 cases had exceeded one million, as the country sought to boost healthcare capacity to ease strains on hospitals and medical staff stretched by a second wave of infections.
(JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a virtual Palace briefing, Dr. John Wong of Epimetrics Inc., bared indicators that will tell if the virus hotspot NCR can be considered “ready” for a more relaxed quarantine status.
According to Wong, R or the reproduction number of a virus defines how easily it spreads in the population. R is the average number of people on to whom an infected person will pass the virus. The higher the number, the more contagious it is.
“It tells us how well we’ve done in the past under MECQ, it doesn’t tell us how well we will do in the future under GCQ,” Wong said.
UPDATE 1-Philippines seeks to lift medical capacity as COVID-19 cases top one million Reuters 1 hr ago
(Adds detail from visit to hospital, presidential spokesman, Red Cross)
By Adrian Portugal and Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, April 26 (Reuters) - The Philippines announced on Monday that its COVID-19 cases had exceeded one million, as the country sought to boost healthcare capacity to ease strains on hospitals and medical staff stretched by a second wave of infections.
The Philippines imposed a two-week lockdown of Manila and surrounding provinces late last month to try to stem a surge in cases blamed on more contagious COVID-19 variants.