MANILA, Philippines — Former National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 member Dr. Tony Leachon has urged Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III to resign amid the corruption allegations against the department.

Leachon said as long as Duque remains as health secretary, the country’s COVID-19 response will not be effective.

The former NTF adviser also warned that the number of COVID-19 cases might worsen if there are no changes in free testing and contact testing.

We have a perfect storm !
A crisis no other!
1. It is defined as a particularly violent storm arising from a rare combination of adverse meteorological factors.
2. It’s a particularly bad or critical state of affairs, arising from a number of negative & unpredictable factors. pic.twitter.com/x8AlYUXCfG

— Tony Leachon MD (@DrTonyLeachon) September 1, 2021

Leachon estimated that COVID-19 cases will reach 3.5 million by the end of the year if responses will not improve and the country will not procure vaccines that will be highly effective against the Delta variant. He also added that the effectiveness of Sinovac vaccines will wane in six months.

“Dapat omorder tayo ng bakuna pwede sa Delta variant. 54 percent ng vaccine natin puro Sinovac, pero according to our vaccine expert panel humihina ang effect ng Sinovac after six months so kailangan magbago tayo strategy (We should order vaccines that is effective against the Delta variant. 54% of our vaccines are Sinovac, but according to our vaccine expert panel, the effect wanes after six months. So we need to change strategy),” he said.

He called on President Rodrigo Duterte to think of an urgent plan to curb the cases or the country might become the Southeast Asia (SEA) epicenter of COVID-19 cases. AAC (with reports from Dante Amento)

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 15,000 doses of Sputnik V Component 2 COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the country on Tuesday evening (August 31).

This fresh supply of the Russian vaccine will be used as second doses.

The shipment is part of the 25 million doses of COVID vaccines the Philippines is expecting to receive this month of September.

According to National Task Force (NTF) against COVID 19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr, the supply for this month will be composed of:

12 million doses of Sinovac;
5 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech;
2 million doses of Moderna;
1 million doses of Astrazeneca;
1 million doses of Sputnik Light;
3 million doses from the COVAX facility; and
1 million doses to be donated by a bilateral partner.

Based on the NTF’s report, the country has administered a total of 33,306,355 doses of COVID vaccines nationwide as of August 30.

Of this number, 19.4 million doses were given as the first shot, while over 13.8 million individuals have received the second dose and are now fully-vaccinated.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government targets to vaccinate around 400,000 individuals daily, according to National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.

Galvez reported that on Tuesday (July 13), the highest daily vaccination was recorded at 375,000. With the expected arrival of more vaccines, he is hopeful that the government will reach the 400,000-mark of daily vaccination.

“Ang aking report kay Presidente na ibi-bridge natin ang 300,000 to 400,000 mark gusto ko pong ibalita ngayon na ang magandang balita na na-bridge na natin ang pinaka-highest day jab 375,000 po tayo,” Galvez said.

(My report to the President is we will bridge the 300,000 to 400,000-mark and we are happy to report that we have reached the highest day jab at 375,000.)

He also announced that 1 million Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the country on Wednesday (July 14) which will immediately be distributed to priority areas, including Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.

According to the NTF against COVID-19, a total of 21,779,910 COVID-19 vaccines were delivered to the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government also targets to vaccinate over 77 million. -AAC (with reports from Dante Amento)