Hanoi (VNA) – Malaysia and the Philippineslogged thousands of new COVID-19 cases on January 31, announced the countries’respective health agencies.
Malaysia reported 5,298 COVID-19 cases and 14fatalities on the day, bringing the respective figures to 214,959 and 760, saidthe country’s Ministry of Health.
Nearly 166,050 patients were declared to haverecovered.
On the same day, the Philippine Department of Healthsaid that 2,103 more cases were detected, raising the national count to525,618, with a death toll of 10,749.
Since COVID-19 broke out in January 2020, thePhilippines, with a population of 110 million, has carried out testing for morethan 7.3 million people.
Chief of the country’s COVID-19 task force CarlitoGalvez said at least 5.6 million doses of two foreign-made COVID-19 vaccinesare expected to arrive in the Philippines in the first quarter of the year forthe vaccination programme.
The Philippine government aims to secure 148 million doses, aiming toinoculate 70 million people this year.
Review committees from the World HealthOrganisation, UNICEF and the vaccine alliance GAVI granted the country thevaccines after the Philippines demonstrated its preparedness to receive them, Galvezadded.
The Philippines, with Southeast Asia’s second-biggestCOVID-19 outbreak at more than half a million infections and over 10,000deaths, aims to start immunisations in February./.