News Roundup 24 May 2020
May 24, 2020 • 3 min Read
Philippines seen to join clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccine within the year | PHILSTAR.COM – The Philippines is expected to join clinical trials for the development of vaccines for the coronavirus within the year, Malacañang said Sunday. The Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has issued Resolution No. 39 adopting the recommendation of the science department on the country’s participation in clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines. Under Resolution No. 39, collaborating organizations will be provided with the World Health Organization (WHO) requirements for coronavirus vaccine target product profiles, pre-qualification process for WHO approvals and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated guidelines on clinical trials. Once the trials are completed, they will form part of the requirements for the vaccine registration process by the FDA for the issuance of certificate of product registration for market release in the Philippines.
Muslims celebrate major holiday amid curfews, virus fears | INQUIRER.NET – Muslims around the world on Sunday began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with millions under strict stay-at-home orders and many fearing renewed coronavirus outbreaks. The three-day holiday is usually a time of travel, family get-togethers, and lavish daytime feasts after weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting. But this year many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims will have to pray at home and make do with video calls. Some countries, including Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, have imposed round-the-clock holiday curfews. But even where many restrictions have been lifted, celebrations will be subdued because of fears of the pandemic and its economic fallout. Saudi Arabia, home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, is under complete lockdown, with residents only permitted to leave their homes to purchase food and medicine.
CBCP commission proposes guidelines for seminaries amid pandemic | Manila Bulletin – The head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission for Seminaries (CBCP-ECS) cited the need to revisit the program of seminary formation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “This unexpected tempest called COVID-19 also makes it necessary for us to revisit our program of seminary formation, prayerfully attentive to the signs of the times yet relentlessly faithful to the mind and heart of the Church,” Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in his proposed guidelines for seminary formation during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We must not endanger the lives of our seminarian sons through our negligence. It is a Christian obligation to obey the quarantine and scrupulously observe hygiene,” he added. The revised seminary discipline during the pandemic, he said, must include the scrupulous observance of public and personal hygiene through frequent hand-washing, wearing of face masks, and social distancing in all seminary activities. The CBCP-ECS proposed some practical considerations, such as seminaries scheduling the return of their seminarians by batches. Villegas said self-quarantine will be observed and the individual must be “cleared” by available doctors before being reintegrated into the community. For those allowed to leave the premises for marketing and errands, the prelate said they shall exercise extreme caution and strictly follow the protocols.
Marawi siege anniv rites ‘simple yet meaningful’ | The Manila Times – The third anniversary of the siege of Marawi, one of the fiercest urban battles in the country’s history, was observed in “simple yet meaningful” rites at an Army camp in the city on Saturday. Col. Jose Maria Cuerpo 2nd, commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, said soldiers laid a wreath and flowers in Kampo Ranao for the victims of the fighting. The rites were particularly meaningful for Cuerpo, who was the brigade’s deputy commander during the five-month-long conflict that killed more than a thousand people. On May 23, 2017, Islamist terrorists opened fire on a small group of soldiers who were sent to Marawi to capture terrorists leader Isnilon Hapilon. What followed was weeks of street fighting that left most of the city in ruins and its population fleeing to safer ground.
