News Roundup 24 October 2021
Oct 24, 2021 • 4 min Read
DOH adds 5,279 new COVID-19 infections, but two labs without data | PHILSTAR.COM – Health authorities reported 5,279 more coronavirus infections on Sunday, bringing the national caseload to 2,756,923. In its latest bulletin released Sunday afternoon, the DOH reported a positivity rate of 10.3% out of 52,881 tests.
- Active cases: 60,957 or 2.2% of the total
- Recoveries: 7,312 new additions, bringing the number to 2,654,173
- Deaths: 208, now 41,793 in total
According to the Department of Health, two labs were not able to submit their tallies for Sunday’s final count.
Volunteers not paid for support, Robredo camp says of social media claims | PHILSTAR.COM – Vice President Leni Robredo’s office and her supporters on Sunday dismissed allegations on social media of people getting “incentives” to show up at activities to express support for her and Sen. Francis Pangilinan, her running mate. In separate statements, both the Office of the Vice President and Team Leni Robredo said it checked on the allegations and found them untrue. “After a thorough investigation with all the team leads in the areas that participated in the caravan, we found that no such activity took place,” the statement read in Filipino. “Because we were super solid yesterday, we received these pictures this morning. Fake news again. Let us expect these kinds of defamation as we grow stronger in numbers,” Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Guttierez also said in a tweet. One of the first viral images making the allegations were shared by Facebook page Wer2GoPH, which describes itself as an “infotainment vlog.” The page claimed that some Filipinos were given P100 bills to participate in the caravan. A similar claim was made by Manuel Mejorada, who identifies as a freelance investigative journalist. Mejorada, who also describes himself on his Twitter profile as the “Number one enemy of Senator Franklin Drilon”, was convicted for libel in 2017. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction in 2018 and the Supreme Court did the same in 2019. Mejorada initially posted a photo of the supposed “incentive” of P100, a Fudgee Bar, a face mask and what was supposedly a sticker in support of Robredo. In a subsequent tweet, he labeled the photo as “CTTO”, or online shorthand for “Credits to the Owner”. In a statement, Team Leni Robredo said it “strongly condemns any type of support purchase and we call on the public to be more critical in sharing these types of information on social media.”
Health workers can’t be blamed for ‘seeking greener pastures’ — Robredo | INQUIRER.NET – Health workers cannot be blamed for resigning to seek better opportunities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Vice President Leni Robredo said on Sunday. “Pawala nang pawala—dati nang kulang dahil hindi pa naaasikaso iyong pangangailangan nila. Hindi natin sila masisisi na mag-seek sila ng greener pastures kasi may mga pamilya itong sinusuportahan, eh,” Robredo said during the BISErbisyong LENI program on DZXL. (They are slowly leaving—we’ve been lacking health workers before because their needs are not met. We cannot blame them for seeking greener pastures because they have a family to support.) “Iyon talaga, iyong hindi ko maintindihan. Kasi nakikita natin, iyong Senate investigation bilyun-bilyon, ‘di ba, bilyun-bilyon iyong anomalya pero iyong pangangailangan—pinaka-basic na pangangailangan ng health workers—hindi natutugonan. Hindi makatarungan, hindi natin maintindihan kung bakit ganito,” she added. (That is what I do not understand. We see Senate investigations where there are billions worth of anomalies but the need—the basic need of health workers—are not met. It is unfair. We cannot understand why it is like this.) Robredo made the remark after reports that many health workers, including nurses, are resigning, which may cause understaffing in health facilities.
Robredo seeks to decentralize, liberalize COVID-19 vax drive to reduce waste | Manila Bulletin – The government should decentralize and liberalize vaccination efforts in light of the logistics problem that could result to wastage or expiration of vaccine doses in the country, Vice President Leni Robredo said on Sunday, October 24. Speaking during her weekly radio show, Robredo emphasized the need to administer coronavirus shots for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) apart from the country’s health workers and senior citizens. “Kung dito sa Manila naubos na ‘yung seniors, at saka naubos na ang health workers, sana ‘yung mga OFW. Halimbawa ‘yung mga seafarers natin, ang daming naghihintay (na)mabakunahan (If all seniors and health workers here in Manila are all vaccinated, I hope the OFWs are next. For example our seafarers, many of them are waiting for their inoculation),” she said. The lady official noted the availability of United States’ Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that can be used by OFWs prior to their deployment abroad. “Mayroon siyang temperature na kailangan. May mga lugar na hindi puwedeng padalhan kasi wala iyong storage requirements. Ako lang, kung may extrang ganito, i-prioritize na natin (These vaccines have temperature requirements. There are areas that can’t be given these vaccones because of storage requirements. For me, if we have extra like these, let us prioritize them),” Robredo said.
