President Rodrigo Duterte may have another public address on Friday (Aug. 20) to announce the new quarantine classification of NCR which is under ECQ until then.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the public address is tentative, but the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) will finalize its recommendations today (Aug.19).
“Dalawang option lang naman po iyan – mananatili ang ECQ, in which case, ang tanong, mayroon bang pang-ayuda; or ibababa po sa [modified] ECQ,” Roque said.
The National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said it is also giving focus to other areas of the country, especially those experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases.
“Kailangang paigtingin natin iyong ating ginagawa natin last year – iyong prevention, detection, isolation at treatment. Pero ngayon, nakikita din natin… napakalaki at napakapositibo ng epekto ng pagbabakuna,” NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon said.
Vaccination
As of Aug. 18, at least 29,127,240 doses have been administered nationwide.
The country received an additional three million CoronaVac doses today (Aug. 19), to be followed by 582,500 AstraZeneca doses and 739,200 Sinopharm doses on Aug. 20.
Malacaῆang said the government is targeting to include in the 2022 national budget the funds for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots amounting to P45 billion. The proposed funding for COVID-19 response in the next budget has a total of P240,747,386,000.
“Ito ay preliminary ‘no. Ito po iyong nakasaad sa National Expenditure Plan. Pero ito po ay puwedeng baguhin po siyempre ng Kongreso – puwedeng dagdagan, puwedeng bawasan,” Roque said. – Report from Mela Lesmoras/AG-bny
