Medical frontliners in Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Cebu City and Davao City will benefit from the additional 400,000 doses of CoronaVac, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese drugmaker Sinovac Biotech.

(Updated 4:16 p.m.) The Philippines on Friday recorded 9,838 additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 702,856.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told lawmakers Friday that he will push for overseas Filipino workers to be moved up in the COVID-19 vaccination priority list by six spots.

The Commission on Higher Education said the following universities passed “stringent retrofitting and health standards.”

“Your quick substitution list should include all health workers and frontliners and who are directly caring for our COVID-19 patients,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

Satellite images released by US-based Simularity showed that a large number of Chinese ships have been "mooring, arriving and departing" at the coral reef since mid-December last year.

Another Supreme Court justice is considering early retirement, which will give President Rodrigo Duterte another opportunity to appoint a new magistrate to the top court.

The coronavirus task force will allow religious gatherings with reduced capacity for the latter part of holy week.

The Makabayan bloc is asking the House of Representatives to condemn and investigate the red-tagging of a Mandaluyong judge who freed in February a labor organizer and a journalist.

In a statement Thursday, the DOH said the current stocks antiviral drug remdesivir and anti-inflammatory treatment tocilizumab are “running low.”