South Korea’s new daily Covid-19 cases stayed below 400,000 for the third consecutive day Saturday, as the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant continues amid eased virus curbs. The country added 335,580 new Covid-19 infections, including 49 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 11,497,711, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Saturday’s tally is down from 339,514 the previous day. South Korea has seen the average count trend downward over the past week, with the numbers coming in at about 357,000 compared with around 405,000 tallied a week earlier. The death toll from Covid-19 was
_:The City Health Office (CHO) has deployed a mobile team to intensify its vaccination program to attain mass population protection against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) soon. Ma. Christine Lim, health education and promotion officer, said Saturday the mobile vaccination is another strategy innovated by the city government to reach out to eligible populations and boost its Covid-19 vaccination. Lim said the mobile team headed by John Carlo Alfaro was deployed on Friday and is focused on vaccinating workers in the fishing industry and seafarers. “From house-to-house and mobile vaccination strategies, the CHO this time adopts the boat-to-boat vaccination strategy to
A leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) was killed in a clash with Scout Ranger troopers in Basilan province, a top military official announced Saturday. Brig. Gen. Domingo Gobway, Joint Task Force (JTF)-Basilan commander, identified the slain ASG leader as Razmil Jannatul alias Abu Khubayb. Gobway said Jannatul was killed in a clash Friday afternoon in Sitio Center, Barangay Baiwas in Sumisip town, Basilan. Gobway said the troops of the 5th Scout Ranger Battalion were on combat operation when they clashed with a group of ASG bandits led by Jannatul. He said the firefight lasted for around 15 minutes
More than 2,000 workers from Ormoc City benefited from the PHP12.14 million worth of livelihood and emergency employment assistance awarded recently by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Livelihood funds amounting to PHP3 million went to the procurement of motorized banca and fishing gear of 100 beneficiaries while the PHP2.88 million livelihood assistance budget was for the “negokart” (business carts) projects of 96 beneficiaries, according to a news release on Saturday. “It is in the interest of the government that informal workers, whether in times of crisis or not, are able to get the livelihood support they need for
The rollout of the fourth coronavirus vaccine dose for senior citizens and medical front-liners could take place by end of April once the emergency use authorization (EUA) has been approved, the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday. In a Laging Handa briefing, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said the agency has applied for amendments in the EUA of select vaccines to be used as a second booster shot. “Hinahanda na po natin ang ating mga guidelines at patuloy na nakikipagtalastasan sa mga eksperto (We are preparing the guidelines and we continue to discuss this with our experts,” she said. “Uumpisahan na
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) estimates a major increase in the number of arrivals in the country by the second quarter of 2022. Commissioner Jaime Morente said on Saturday the opening of borders to all vaccinated foreign nationals is a huge step towards the recovery of the tourism and international travel sector. “Further downgrading of our country’s travel restrictions as Covid-19 cases remain low is a welcome development,” he said in a statement. The BI chief added they expect the first wave of arrivals to be families of Filipinos who were unable to go home due to the travel restrictions.
