MB Daily News Update

The national government insists it has been doing its best amid allegations of incompetence and inconsistency in handling the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

 Answers, and explanations to these allegations are among the stories we have collected for your perusal this Tuesday afternoon, March 23, 2021.  

1. PH COVID-19 Update: 5,867 new cases, 620 recoveries, 20 fatalities

• President Duterte laments that there are just too many people gathered in small places in Metro Manila, which is fodder for the highly transmissible disease

• There are already 40 million doses of vaccines that have been procured by LGUS and private sector, according to embattled vaccine czar Carlito Galvez

• With the reproduction number of the virus at an alarming 2.2, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David thinks clamping down on the surge in the next two weeks would be unlikely

• Baguio, Boracay, Ilocos Norte closes doors on travelers coming from NCR-plus

• US, Israel, Indonesia model to be used for government’s vaccination efforts

• 400,000 doses of SInovac vaccine arriving from Beijing aboard Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight at 7:25 a.m., Wednesday, March 24, 2021

• West PH Sea tension: “We stand with the Philippines, our oldest treaty ally in Asia,” the US Embassy in Manila.*

• Spectral Acceleration Maps of the Philippines (SAM PH) Atlas to provide reference to engineers, building designers, and urban planners in the design of essential and critical structures that can withstand “very destructive” Intensity VIII earthquakes.

1. PAGASA to mark World Meteorological Day with this year’s theme “The Ocean, Our Climate, and Weather”

1. Taal Volcano remains under Alert Level 2

1. Hot weather expected to start this weekend