People waiting for their turns to get vaccine shots in Philippines. (Photo: VNA) With only 6 percent of the Philippines' 110 millionpeople fully vaccinated against COVID-19, millions remain vulnerable toinfection. The government is aiming to fully immunise up to 70 million peoplebefore the year ends.
"Give the vaccines to those who want to bevaccinated," Duterte said in a late-night address, expressing concern overthe contagious Delta variant, which is ripping through Southeast Asia, now aglobal epicentre for the virus.
It was not immediately clear if his directive meantthat the vaccines could now be given to Filipinos not included in thegovernment's priority groups.
Given limited supplies, it is prioritising healthcareworkers, the elderly, people with existing medical conditions and working ageadults.
The country has so far reported 119 cases of the Deltavariant, first detected in India, but health experts say there could be moreundetected cases because of the slow pace of the country's genome sequencingcapacity.
With more than 1.5 million coronavirus cases and morethan 27,000 deaths, the Philippines has the second-worst outbreak in SoutheastAsia after Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Cambodia on July 29 reported 765 newCOVID-19 infections including 328 imported cases, pushing the national totalcaseload to 75,917.
Eleven more fatalities were recorded, bringing theoverall death toll to 1,350, the health ministry said, adding that 694 otherpatients had recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 68,386.
Given a surge in imported cases over the past weeks, Cambodiahas decided to impose coronavirus restrictions for eight provinces borderingThailand.
The Cambodian Government on July 28 also announced anationwide campaign to strengthen COVID-19 prevention and control measures, asthe country is facing the third wave of larger transmission caused by the Deltavariant of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
According to the government's directive signed byPrime Minister Hun Sen, the campaign lasts two weeks, from July 29 to August12, the Cambodia News Agency AKP reported./.
VNA
