TOKYO – Less than a week after declaring a state of emergency for Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga placed seven additional prefectures under the declaration amid a surge in COVID-19 infections across Japan.

MANILA – The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light Thursday to a COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the first to be granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in the country.

MANILA – The Philippines on Wednesday has officially confirmed its first case of the highly contagious B.1.1.7. SARS-CoV-2 variant, also known as the UK variant, after samples from a Filipino who returned home from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Jan. 7 yielded positive genome sequencing results.

TOKYO – The Japanese government on Friday said it would require all travelers entering Japan to submit negative results from COVID-19 tests taken within 72 hours of their departure for the country during the period of the second state of emergency that was declared Thursday.