Health Secretary Duque appeals to the United Nations and WHO on vaccines
MANILA – Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III today said he will prepare a letter for the United Nations and the Geneva-based World Health Organization to appeal to the highly-developed and affluent countries in discussions for the planned booster or third dose against COVID-19.
Speaking at a press briefing in Central Luzon, Secretary Duque said talks about booster shots are out of synch because a big number of the world’s population has not received even the first dose.
“I can only hope they would listen to the appeal from low and middle-income countries seriously in need of vaccines. We still have a low coverage that is why I will prepare my formal request for them to consider,” Secretary Duque said.
From March 1 to July 4,2021, the Philippine government has inoculated 8,839,124 Filipinos for the first dose and 2,868,905 received their second dose. The average daily administered doses for the past seven days was 254,141 in 1,197 vaccination sites across the country.
As of today, over 12 million doses have been dispensed.
The office of Secretary Carlito Galvez reported a record-high of 1,778.989 inoculations during the 18th week of vaccination.
However, the scheduled arrival of Sinovac vaccines will be delayed by two weeks from the original schedule.
This comes at the heels of updates from the country’s Department of Health which disclosed 4,114 new COVID-19 cases bringing the total to 1,445,832 cases with 6,086 new recoveries. The government reported 1,370,923 recoveries. The casualty figures reached 25,296 with 104 deaths reported today. (Melo M. Acuña)

Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III. (Screen grab from Malacanang Press Briefing at Pampanga/RTVM/PTV4/PCOO)
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