News Roundup 13 May 2021
May 13, 2021 • 5 min Read
6,385 new COVID-19 cases seen as ‘NCR Plus’ awaits new quarantine status | PHILSTAR.COM – The Department of Health on Thursday tallied 6,385 new coronavirus cases, pushing the country’s count to 1,124,724. Today’s development saw active cases up by 2,046 from Wednesday’s 53,214. DOH added that all laboratories were able to submit data from their COVID-19 tests.
- Active cases: 55,260 or 4.9% of the total
- Recoveries: 4.289, bringing the number to 1,050,643
- Deaths: 107, or now 18,821 in total
COVAX to send 2.2 million more Pfizer doses by end-May — Galvez | PHILSTAR.COM – An official handling the country’s vaccination efforts said Thursday that 2.2 million more doses of Pfizer from COVAX facility will arrive in the Philippines this May. The World Health Organization-led initiative delivered an initial 193,050 doses this week, marking the country’s first ever supply of the jab. Metro Manila cities have begun administering the Pfizer vaccine to priority groups since its arrival. The WHO has stressed that government should strictly follow this list, otherwise risk future allocation from COVAX. Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. along with other officials was at the Makati Medical Center earlier today for a symbolic inoculation of Pfizer. In a briefing, he thanked the foreign groups involved in making Pfizer more available to the country. This includes the United States, which Palace spokesperson Harry Roque incorrectly claimed as yet to send a “single vial” to the Philippines despite being a top COVAX donor. “We are very happy,” Galvez said. “To Dr. Rabi (Abeyasinghe), the US government, to (vaccine alliance) Gavi and also to COVAX, for allowing us to access the donated Pfizer. We’re very thankful.” Galvez said they have an arragement with UNICEF to immediately transport the doses to other sites which have storage capacity such as Davao and Cebu “to avoid double handling.” “Don’t worry, we have been rehearsing since February for Pfizer and we don’t see any problem,” he added in Filipino. The said vaccine was among the first supposedly to reach the country in February. Its delivery, however, was delayed for months due to the lack of an indemnity law in the country.
Robredo playing coy? Gutierrez says no, she finds it hard to decide for 2022 | INQUIRER.NET – Contrary to claims that Vice President Leni Robredo is merely “playing coy” or avoiding questions on whether she would run for president in 2022, her spokesperson insisted that the opposition’s figurehead is really having a hard time deciding on her future plans. Robredo spokesperson and lawyer Barry Gutierrez stressed on Thursday that being “coy” is not something that can be used to describe her as she has always addressed issues in a direct-to-the-point manner. “I’ve known the Vice President for the better of a decade now, ever since we were in Congress, and coy is not something that I would ever attach to her as a descriptor. She is plain-spoken, she is very direct, she will tell you what she feels and what she believes,” Gutierrez told ABS-CBN News Channel’s Dateline Philippines. “She’s, you know, she’s a straight shooter, and she will never play coy. My honest understanding here is that this is really a weighty decision, and she is really trying to navigate it as best as she can. She’s trying to balance what she feels are the very, very clear imperatives for the nation on one hand, balanced with, you know, her own personal considerations with respect to her family,” he added. According to Gutierrez, there are myriad of things that are stopping Robredo from finally deciding on whether she would pursue the presidency, the Camarines Sur gubernatorial post, or return to a private life — but one of which is her family’s concerns. “I think there are multiple factors. Like in 2016, one of the factors is obviously her family. It is not easy for somebody like the Vice President, who has never been a professional politician and who, you know, has a very, very close relationship with her daughters, to just make this decision off the cuff, without regard on how it will affect her family,” Gutierrez explained. “Remember, in 2016, one of the reasons why she took so long before she actually declared her intention to run for vice president at that time was she needed to get her family onboard. So I think that’s one of the things that’s still very much on her mind,” he added.
VP Leni’s office surprised by Trillanes’ announcement of 2022 presidential bid | Manila Bulletin – The “surprise” announcement of former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to run for president in the 2022 elections gave an unfortunate impression that Vice President Leni Robredo has already abandoned any intention to seek the highest post of the land, Barry Gutierrez, spokesman for the Office of the Vice President said Thursday. In an interview over ANC, Gutierrez said it came to him as a surprise, knowing that Trillanes has been their ally with whom they are periodically communicating over the course of the past few years. “So it was a bit of a surprise to see him come out to say that the Vice President was already preparing to run for governor of Camarines Sur—which gave a lot of people maybe the unfortunate impression that she has already abandoned any intentions to seek the presidency in 2022, which is far from the truth,” Gutierrez said. While he did not deny that the Vice President has been considering a run for a local office ever since discussions on 2022 have started heating up, Gutierrez, however, stressed that there have been “no preparations insofar as pursuing an actual run at a local level is concerned”. As for the Liberal Party of which the Vice President is now the current chair, he said there are already preparations being made by volunteers, supporters, by local chapters for a possible presidential run in 2022.
