News Roundup 03 January 2020
Jan 03, 2021 • 4 min Read
Ending VFA threat uncalled for if vaccine purchase efforts going well, Robredo says | PHILSTAR.COM – There would have been no need to use the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US to secure doses of its COVID-19 vaccines had procurement efforts at home went well, Vice President Leni Robredo said on Sunday. President Rodrigo Duterte made the threat over the holidays to finally end the decades-long military deal with America if Washington fails to deliver some 20 million doses of its vaccines. In her weekly radio show, the country’s top opposition figure said stirring tensions with other countries come uncalled for, especially with two vaccine candidates — Pfizer and Moderna — coming from the US. “‘Di naman tayo kailangan magbanta kung nasa ayos naman ‘yung programa natin sa procurement ng vaccines,” she said over DZXL. “Maraming bagay na hindi natin kailangan at this point and ‘yung makipagaway na wala namang basehan, hindi ‘yun nakatutulong.” (We don’t need to make threats if our program for vaccine procurement is going well. We have a lot of things that we don’t need at this point, and one of them is to pick fights without basis. This doesn’t help.) “Kung ginawa natin ‘yung ating trabaho, makakukuha tayo,” Robredo said. “Dapat ‘yung conversation ini-inform ‘yung mga tao kung nasaang stage na tayo, saan ba tayo nakapila [at] ilan ba ‘yung dadating.” (If we are doing our job well, we will secure the doses. Our conversation now should be on informing people on which stage we are in procurement, where are we falling in line and how many doses are we expecting.) The Philippines is so far sure of 2.6 million doses of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca from a P600 million-donation of the private sector. Despite senior administration officials’ repeated assurances during the weekly televised coronavirus task force meetings, government has not signed any deals yet with drugmakers.
PH seeks $300-M World Bank loan to buy COVID vaccines | INQUIRER.NET – The Philippines is seeking a fresh loan of $300 million from the World Bank to purchase vaccines for COVID-19, according to documents from the multilateral lender seen by the Inquirer on Saturday. In response to the loan request made last November, the bank allowed the government to initially use $25 million to $30 million of its $100-million loan to the Duterte administration’s emergency COVID-19 project in April last year, according to one document. Another document said the amended loan agreement would provide financing support “to the borrower’s (the Philippines) health sector in the purchase and deployment of project COVID-19 vaccines.” On Dec. 29, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III confirmed and agreed to the amendment, or restructuring, of the April 2020 loan in behalf of the government, the documents said. The World Bank said the proposed additional financing would be submitted to its Washington-based board for approval during the first quarter of this year. So far, only $8.15 million had been disbursed from the $100-million loan to procure additional medical equipment and strengthen the health-care system during the pandemic. The loan agreement took effect in May 2020.
Gordon cites PhiHealth’s huge debts to Red Cross anew | Manila Bulletin – Senator Richard Gordon on Sunday said the Philippine Red Cross may again be forced to suspend its COVID-19 testing if the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) fails to settle its debt with the PRC anew. According to Gordon, who serves as PRC Chair, PhilHealth’s debt with the humanitarian organization is P762.8-million. The senator said he hopes the state health insurance agency can avoid having its debt reach to P1-billion.
“Kailangan maibaba yan, kailangan magbayad na sila ng kalahati. Ibaba na natin within the next several days, na mabayaran na yan. (We need to lower the amount, so they must pay at least half. Let’s halve it within the next several days, they should pay the amount),” Gordon said in an interview over Radio DZBB. “P100-million is liveable. Hindi nakakatakot yun. Pero kung papalakihin natin na aabot na naman ng P1-billion ay talagang mapipilitan tayong tumigil. (That’s not scary. But if the amount of debt would again reach P1-billion, then we will be forced to stop the testing),” he said. Gordon reiterated the PRC needs money to replenish its supplies, and to pay the salaries of the workers. He also reasoned out that the PRC did not stop the COVID-19 testing even during the holidays. According to the senator, he has already informed government officials of the PRC’s concerns, particularly to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
Health officials record 891 more coronavirus cases, tally now at 477,807 | PHILSTAR.COM – Three days into the New Year, the country’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caseload hit 477,807 Sunday after the Department of Health logged another 891 confirmed infections. In its latest case bulletin issued Sunday afternoon, the Department of Health also recorded 8,316 more recoveries and 4 more casualties linked to the virus, bringing the pathogen’s death toll in the country to 9,257 or 1.94% of total cases. This brings total recoveries to 448,258, good for a 93.8% recovery rate. Among the total cases, exactly 20,292—or 4.2%—are marked as active cases, referring to patients who have neither recovered nor passed away and are still recovering in hospitals or quarantine facilities.
