Daily COVID Tracker: Philippines begins rollout of second booster dose

The Philippines has begun the rollout of a second booster dose against COVID-19. Here are five updates about the pandemic this Monday.

Shanghai reports 51 COVID-related deaths

Shanghai reported 51 new COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, up from 39 the day before.

The government announced this on Monday.

The city also recorded 16,983 new local asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, down from 19,657 a day earlier.

The number of confirmed symptomatic infections stood at 2,472, up from 1,401 the previous day.

Philippines starts rollout of second booster dose against COVID

The Philippines has started giving a second COVID-19 booster dose for immunocompromised adults.

Nearly 61% of the Philippines’ population have been vaccinated, while about 13 million people have received a first booster dose.

“Because of increasing vaccination coverage, while COVID-19 is still there, in the near future we can consider this as an endemic disease,” Francisco Duque, the country’s health secretary, said.

Philippines has been cautious with its reopening, despite efforts to revive its economy.

Taiwan won’t go into Shanghai-like lockdown, says premier

Su Tseng-chang, Taiwan’s premier, says it will not go into a Shanghai-like lockdown to control a rise in domestic COVID-19 cases.

Speaking to reporters, Tseng-chang said the government was confident in the steps being taken and it was “fortunate” more than 99% of cases were either asymptomatic or had mild illness.

“We will gradually deal with it and won’t be like Shanghai and go into lockdown, but we also won’t immediately stop wearing face masks and not take anti-pandemic measures,” he said.

Japanese drugmaker says it’s COVID-19 pill shows rapid clearance of virus

Shionogi, Japanese drugmaker, says an experimental treatment has shown rapid clearance of the virus that causes COVID-19.

“The pill, S-217622, demonstrated rapid clearance of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus,” Shionogi said in a statement.

It also said the findings released on Sunday showed “there was no significant difference in total score of 12 COVID-19 symptoms between treatment arms “though the drug showed improvement in a composite score of five “respiratory and feverish” symptoms.

The company said it has global aspirations for the antiviral pill, which is now being evaluated by Japanese regulators.

Shanghai authorities fence off COVID-hit areas, sparking outrage

Shanghai authorities have erected fences outside residential buildings in the city to contain a COVID-19 outbreak, sparking renewed outrage over a lockdown on the city.

One video showed residents shouting from balconies at workers who tried to set up fencing before relenting and taking the barricade away. Other videos showed people trying to pull the fences down.

The lockdown, which has lasted more than three weeks for some, has fuelled frustration among the public over lost wages, family separations, poor conditions in quarantine, and lack of access to medical care and food.

The outbreak is driven by the Omicron variant and has seen thousands of cases detected in the city but fewer than 100 deaths since the outbreak began nearly two months ago.