The city government will start on Wednesday to conduct a random rapid antigen test for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in-bound travelers under the essential services amid the threat posed by the Delta variant. Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said Tuesday the antigen test is one of the measures by the local Inter-Agency Task Force on the management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to help curb infection, particularly the spread of the more contagious variant. Travelers under the essential services are allowed unhampered movement across all borders as they convey basic commodities to numerous places. Salazar said the random testing will
As of August 8, 2021, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has tested 3,749,152 for Covid-19, which is 21.80 percent of the country’s total testing numbers, making PRC the country’s leading agency when it comes to Covid-19 testing. “Even with the ECQ [enhanced community quarantine], this August, Red Cross has been testing 8,530 a day. Lagi ko sinasabi (I always say), we will not stop. Testing at vaccination ang ating sandata laban sa pandemyang ito (Testing and vaccination are our weapons against this pandemic),” PRC Chairman and CEO Senator Richard J. Gordon said in a media release Tuesday. Of the total
The Philippines has made “great contributions” in advancing the relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) throughout its three-year coordinatorship that ended last Aug. 3, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said Tuesday. In a statement, the envoy said Beijing will continue to work with the Philippines to maintain the good momentum of consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea. “[W]e would like to thank the Philippines as Country Coordinator for ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations in the past three years for its great contributions in promoting our relations, especially making progress in
A low pressure area (LPA) and the southwest monsoon or habagat will bring scattered rain showers across Luzon and the Visayas, a weather forecaster said Tuesday. “The LPA and southwest monsoon will bring scattered rains and thunderstorms over Luzon. Rains are likely in the afternoon and at night,” said Meno Mendoza of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). He said the Visayas is also expected to experience cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms. The LPA was last spotted 280 kilometers east of Virac, Catanduanes. “At present, it has a slim chance of developing into a tropical
Two days after the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics, Philippine Sports Commission chairman Butch Ramirez remains in awe of what the Philippine team has done in the athletic meet. The Nationals won four medals this year, including the country’s first-ever gold medal courtesy of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, the most a Philippine team has ever amassed in a single Olympic. The Philippines also finished as the top-performing Southeast Asian nation, thanks to silvers from boxers Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam with fellow pug Eumir Marcial completing the job with his bronze medal. Diaz, who had to leave Tokyo quickly due to
The distribution of cash assistance to low-income households in Metro Manila will still be on August 11, Malacañang said Tuesday. The clarification was made, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte stripped an unnamed local government unit (LGU) in Metro Manila of its role to distribute the financial assistance to poor families affected by the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the region. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, however, echoed Duterte’s statement that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will take over the distribution of financial aid in one area
