MANILA, Philippines – Thousands of doses of CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Davao City on Tuesday as the government continues its vaccination campaign against the viral respiratory disease.

Some 12,000 doses of CoronaVac developed by Chinese firm Sinovac aboard an airplane arrived at the Davao International Airport around 6:45 a.m.

The COVID-19 vaccines were brought to the Department of Health Regional Office for storage.

The city government said the first batch of vaccines will be used to vaccinate over 8,000 frontline workers, primarily those in the healthcare sector in Davao City and Tagum City.

The immunization will start on Friday at the Southern Philippines Medical Center where 3,000 healthcare workers will be first inoculated.

Of these number, around 150 frontliners are expected to receive the vaccine on the first day of the vaccination.

SPMC officer-in-charge Dr. Ricardo Audan, Davao City COVID-19 focal person Dr. Ashley Lopez, and DOH regional director Annabelle Yumang will be among those to be vaccinated in the city. – RRD (with details from Correspondent Marisol Montaño)

MANILA, Philippines – Metro Manila remains under general community quarantine (GCQ) for another month starting March 1, as announced by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.

Aside from National Capital Region (NCR), the following areas will also be under GCQ beginning March 1:

• Baguio City (Luzon)
• Davao City (Luzon)
• Batangas (Luzon)
• Apayao (Luzon)
• Kalinga (Luzon)
• Mt. Province  (Luzon)
• Tacloban City (Visayas)
• Iligan City (Mindanao)
• Lanao del Sur (Mindanao)

Meanwhile, the rest of the country will remain under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) until the end of March.

The city government of Davao on Thursday said it has stepped up the investigation and contact tracing on the possible source of the city’s first known case of the B.1.1.7 variant of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) first detected in the United Kingdom.

This is after the city reported a case of a 10-year old male who tested positive for the new variant last week.

Dr. Ashley Lopez, the acting chief of the City Health Office, said the case was among the sixth batch of samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center on February 8, in which 3 of the 19 new cases of the B.1.1.7 in the country were traced in Davao Region.

Two of the cases are from Davao de Oro and the other one is from Davao City.

Lopez said the health office immediately investigated the case and conducted tracing for the patient’s close contacts.

“The boy was immediately isolated after he tested positive on January 18. He was isolated for 10 days because he was asymptomatic,” he said.

“After 10 days the boy was sent home and continued quarantine for four more days,” he added.

The child has fully recovered on February 1 but remains in quarantine at home, according to Lopez.

The patient’s grandmother, whom he had contact with during the holidays, recently completed a 21-day quarantine. His parents have already taken RT-PCR tests and both have yielded negative results.

The city health official said there is no clear evidence yet on how the boy contracted the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant.

“The family has no history of travel even in the past year and has no known contact with a suspected UK variant or foreigner. We can’t find a history of exposure to a probable UK variant,” Lopez said based on their assessment.

He said there is no evidence of community transmission of the coronavirus variant in the city.