METRO MANILA – The Department of Health’s (DOH) P2.5-billion allocation for COVID-19 vaccines in the 2021 national budget lacks some P10 billion to purchase coronavirus vaccines that will be enough to cover the 20 million Filipinos or 20% of the country’s population Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online press briefing that DOH sent a recommendation that the …

METRO MANILA: The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday confirmed that it has already distributed most of the ₱2.2 billion worth of medicines, supplies that the Commission on Audit flagged as nearing expiration and unused. According to the Commission on Audit, In the 2019 report, DOH has accumulated ₱2.2 billion worth of medicine and supplies which are either unused or …

In theory, the cabinet on Tuesday accepted a proposal from the Ministry of Public Health to amend the Drugs Act to allow patients, medical practitioners and traditional healers to cultivate cannabis for medicinal and commercial use. Deputy government spokeswoman Traisulee Traisoranakul said the cabinet accepted the proposal that Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul made last year to change the drugs …

MANILA – More than 80,000 people in the country has now been positive with the COVID-19, the Department of Health announced on Sunday after 2,110 additional new cases were recorded by the agency. The DOH the positive cases has already reached 80,448. Over 60% or 1,345 of the new cases came from the National Capital Region,  Cebu, on the other …

MANILA – President Duterte is confident that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III will be able to answer to all allegations against him by the office of the ombudsman over “lapses” in the health department’s COVID-19 response. Ombudsman Samuel Martires said on Wednesday that he will be forming additional teams to investigate alleged anomalies committed by DOH health officials including Duque …

MANILA – Ombudsman Samuel Martires orders the investigation of the Department of Health (DOH), including Secretary Francisco Duque III and other officials and employees of the Department over alleged irregularities on the response  to the coronavirus pandemic. The Ombudsman confirmed that he has directed two or more investigating team to probe the alleged anomalies and irregularities committed by the Health …

MANILA – The country is already in the middle of its “second wave”, the country’s health chief said on Wednesday. “Actually we are now on the second wave. We are now in the lower part of the second wave.” “There was a very small wave last few days of January, and then there was a lull, and then we had …

On Saturday the Department of Health announced there were 32 new positive cases of COVID-19, taking the number to 262. One COVID-19-positive patient died while another five were recovered. The country’s death toll owing to COVID-19 is 19 as of Saturday. Thirteen patients have recovered from the disease so far. Dr. Aileen S.P. Baviera, former dean of the University of …

The Department of Health (DOH) has reported 45 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19), taking the country’s number of cases to 187. The DOH has yet to provide further information on the 45 new confirmed cases. So far the number of deaths associated with COVID-19 has remained at 12. Meanwhile, another patient who has recovered from the …

On Saturday the Department of Health (DOH) announced two more deaths from the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), raising the death count to eight. The DOH said in its statement the two additional COVID-19 deaths were on top of the one that was confirmed earlier in the day. As of this writing, no other specifics are yet available on the two …