More people died by suicide last year as the pandemic began and dragged on, with the Philippine Statistics Authority reporting a 57% increase in the country’s suicide rate in 2020 compared to the preceding year.

COVID-19 was among the top causes of death in the Philippines last year, but heart disease was still the biggest killer, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Local health authorities on Tuesday reported 4,114 more COVID-19 infections, bringing the national caseload to 1,445,832.

In a statement, NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said implementing units were told to focus on completely inoculating those who have received the first dose of the Sinovac vaccine until supplies become stable.

"We hope they will listen to the sentiment of low to middle-income countries where vaccines are still lacking," Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Tuesday.

"If the vaccines being sold are really smuggled, we will find out the source and who is behind the smuggling of them," the PNP chief said in a statement sent to reporters Tuesday morning.

"The risks of potential misuse of the ATA also grow as the 2022 elections loom, a period where the implementation of the law will not be suspended," the Institute for Autonomy and Governance said in a report.

A total of 12 million Filipinos have received at least one coronavirus shot since the government launched its inoculation campaign in March, a member of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said Tuesday. 

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello has ordered the suspension of a foreign recruitment agency’s accreditation with the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh after an overseas Filipino worker was allegedly raped by the owner and molested by one of...

The World Health Organization’s representative to the Philippines said the country is still not at low risk for future COVID-19 infections despite a decline in new cases which prompted the health department to classify the country as a “low-riskâ...