January 18 ------ The Philippines marked another grim milestone in its battle against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after the Department of Health (DOH) announced 1,895 new infections on Sunday, bringing the national tally to 500,577. Davao City logged the highest number of new cases at 107, followed by Quezon City with 106, Isabela with 65, Pampanga with 63, and Bulacan with 62.
Five laboratories failed to submit data to the DOH on time. The total number of recoveries also rose to 465,991 after 5,868 more patients recovered from the respiratory disease, while the death toll climbed to 9,895 with 11 new fatalities. The DOH earlier said it would report time-based recoveries every Sunday as part of “Oplan Recovery,” where asymptomatic and mild cases are re-tagged as recovered after completing a 14-day quarantine without developing symptoms. There were also 24,691 active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine.
Meanwhile, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. vowed caution in selecting a COVID-19 jab for the elderly, following the death of 23 seniors in Norway who were inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration also said an emergency use authorization, which it granted to Pfizer last week, could still be revised if a vaccine shows safety issues. COVID-19 has so far claimed over 2 million lives and infected more than 93 million people worldwide.
Source: gmanetwork.com