Another Throwback Thursday: Why did Bongbong Marcos and Digong Duterte meet in Cebu a year before the 2016 presidential election?

Senator Bongbong Marcos and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte met in Cebu in May 2015 when they claimed they have not made up their minds yet on the 2016 presidential election. They both spoke before KBP Cebu officers and members. But it happened because we had trouble inviting a guest speaker for the induction program. I discussed it during Arangkada on May 11, 2015.

 

Throwback Thursday: A 3-minute clip of Arangkada on May 5, 2015

Klaro bang gimingaw mi sa Arangkada? A listener sent us this clip of my program on May 5, 2015 discussing rumors that former Cebu Governor Lito Osmena may stage a political comeback by running for governor again. (We would like to apologize for the poor video quality of our teleradyo broadcast almost 6 years ago)

Galvez: Covid-19 vaccines in the first quarter this year would not be enough to cover health workers, frontliners and senior citizens

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez admitted during the cabinet meeting last night that the initial shipment of 5.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the first quarter this year would not be enough:

• Only 3.5 million doses of vaccines from Covax facility (Pfizer and AstraZeneca);
• 600,000 doses of Sinovac donated by the Chinese government (which may arrive this week); and
• One million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine procured by the Department of Health (DOH).

 

Duque: Local government officials in Cebu and Central Visayas should exert more effort to contain Covid-19 cases

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told President Rodrigo Duterte during last night's cabinet meeting: We're giving special attention to Central Visayas, especially Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapulapu City.

• Lapulapu City is now considered a moderate risk because their hospitals' critical care utilization rate is 69%
• LGUs should exert more effort to control community transmission of Covid-19
• The overall critical utilization rate in Central Visayas is still considered low risk at 49%

 

DOH: Positivity rate in Central Visayas is still high, pulled up by Cebu laboratories' swab test results

DOH: 14.15% Positivity Rate in Central Visayas on Wednesday, February 24, 2021

• 457 tested positive out ot 3,230 swab samples in the region
• The positivity rate in Cebu's molecular laboratories was 14.74% (450 out of 3,020 swab samples)
• Bohol laboratories' positivity rate was 2.00% (1 of 50)
• The positivity rate in Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital laboratory was 4.69% (6 of 128)
• World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to keep positivity rate lower than 5% to ensure that community transmission is under control and that swab testing is adequate

DOH: 95% of New Covid-19 Cases in Central Visayas on Wednesday, February 24, were from Cebu; More than half from Cebu City

DOH Central Visayas Covid-19 Report on February 24, 2021

• 457 new Covid-19 cases in the region
• More than half (234 or 51.20%) were from Cebu City
• Cebu Province was the second biggest contributor with 76 (16.63%)
• 433 cases (94.75%) were from Cebu
• Negros Oriental had 23 (5.03%) while Bohol had 1 (0.22%)

WHO: Wealthy Nations Must Share Vaccine Doses With Poor Countries; The Goal of Equitable Distribution in Jeopardy

 

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged wealthy nations to share vaccine doses with COVAX, saying the goal of equitable distribution was “in jeopardy”.

“So far 210 million doses of vaccine have been administered globally but half of those are in just two countries,” Tedros said in Geneva. “More than 200 countries are yet to administer a single dose.”

COVAX is co-led by the WHO, the GAVI vaccines alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and UNICEF.

It was launched in June 2020 to try to prevent poorer countries being pushed to the back of the queue for COVID-19 vaccines as wealthier nations bought up billions of doses for their populations.