In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte holds a vial containing the Sinovac vaccine from China as it arrives at the Villamor Air Base in Manila, Philippines on Sunday Feb. 28, 2021. The Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, among the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite having the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the hard-hit region. (Toto Lozano/ Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)
In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, third from left, poses with Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian, second from left, as they stand in front of a Chinese military plane carrying Sinovac vaccines from China at the Villamor Air Base in Manila, Philippines on Sunday Feb. 28, 2021. The Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, among the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite having the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the hard-hit region. (Toto Lozano/ Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)
In this handout photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Boxes with Sinovac vaccines from China are transported as it arrives at the Villamor Air Base in Manila, Philippines on Sunday Feb. 28, 2021. The Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, among the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite having the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the hard-hit region. (King Rodriguez/ Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)
In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, right, poses with Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian, second from left, as they stand in front of a military place carrying Sinovac vaccines from China at the Villamor Air Base in Manila, Philippines on Sunday Feb. 28, 2021. The Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, among the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite having the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the hard-hit region. (King Rodriguez/Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, right, injects China's Sinovac vaccine on Filipino doctor Eileen Aniceto during the first batch of vaccination at the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon city, Philippines on Monday, March 1, 2021. The Philippines launched a vaccination campaign Monday to contain one of Southeast Asia's worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A health worker injects China's Sinovac vaccine on his colleague during the first batch of vaccination at the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon city, Philippines on Monday, March 1, 2021. The Philippines launched a vaccination campaign Monday to contain one of Southeast Asia's worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, right, injects China's Sinovac vaccine on Filipino doctor Eileen Aniceto during the first batch of vaccination at the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon city, Philippines on Monday, March 1, 2021. The Philippines launched a vaccination campaign Monday to contain one of Southeast Asia's worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, a Chinese military plane carrying Sinovac vaccines from China arrives at the Villamor Air Base in Manila, Philippines on Sunday Feb. 28, 2021. The Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, among the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite having the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the hard-hit region. (King Rodriguez/Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)
In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, right, holds a vial containing the Sinovac vaccine from China as it arrives at the Villamor Air Base in Manila, Philippines on Sunday Feb. 28, 2021. The Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, among the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite having the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the hard-hit region. (Toto Lozano/Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)
In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte holds a vial containing the Sinovac vaccine from China as it arrives at the Villamor Air Base in Manila, Philippines on Sunday Feb. 28, 2021. The Philippines received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, among the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite having the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the hard-hit region. (King Rodriguez/ Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)
Health workers gather as they call on the government to give them a vaccine with the safest, highest efficacy and effectivity during a a protest outside the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon city, Philippines on Monday, March 1, 2021. The Philippines launched a vaccination campaign Monday to contain one of Southeast Asia's worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Health workers display slogans calling on the government to give them a vaccine with the safest, highest efficacy and effectivity during a a protest outside the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon city, Philippines on Monday, March 1, 2021. The Philippines launched a vaccination campaign Monday to contain one of Southeast Asia's worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine government launched a vaccination campaign on Monday to contain one of Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials.
Cabinet officials, along with health workers and military and police personnel, were among the first to be vaccinated at six hospitals in Metropolitan Manila, after the arrival Sunday of 600,000 doses of vaccine donated by China.
At the state-run Philippine General Hospital in Manila, hospital director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi was inoculated first in a televised event and was followed by Cabinet and Department of Health officials.
“Let’s get vaccinated, let’s save lives every day. We need to move on,” Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said in a speech at the hospital, adding he would get vaccinated in about a week after the health workers.
The Philippines was among the last Southeast Asian countries to receive vaccines due to delivery delays, although it has reported more than 578,300 infections, including 12,322 deaths, the second-highest totals in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Lockdowns and quarantine restrictions have set back the country's economy in one of the worst recessions in the region and sparked unemployment and hunger.
“Our economy is really down, so the earlier these vaccinations gain speed, the better,” President Rodrigo Duterte told a televised news conference late Sunday after witnessing the delivery of the vaccines at an air base in the capital.
Duterte said he was considering a further easing of quarantine restrictions in the capital and elsewhere once the vaccination campaign gains momentum. With just 600,000 doses available, Monday’s immunizations were billed as symbolic.
Aside from the donated vaccine from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd., the government has ordered 25 million more doses from the company but no date has been set for the deliveries. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the arrival of an initial 525,600 doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca that was initially scheduled for Monday would be delayed by a week due to supply problems.
China’s donation is a tiny fraction of at least 148 million doses the government has been negotiating to secure from Western and Asian companies to vaccinate about 70 million Filipinos for free in a massive campaign funded by foreign and domestic loans. Most of the shipments are expected to arrive later this year amid a global scramble for COVID-19 vaccines.
Duterte’s administration has come under criticism for lagging behind most other Southeast Asian countries in securing the vaccines, but the president has said wealthy Western countries have cornered massive doses for their citizens, leaving poorer nations scrambling for the rest.
Aside from supply problems, there have been concerns over the vaccine’s safety, largely due to a dengue vaccine scare that prompted the Duterte administration to stop a massive immunization drive in 2017. There have also been concerns even among health workers over the Sinovac vaccine because of its lower efficacy rate compared to others developed in the West and Russia.
Carlito Galvez Jr, who leads government efforts to secure the vaccines, said Duterte saw some surveys showing low public confidence in the Sinovac vaccine and ordered him and other top officials to be inoculated with it.
At the Philippine General Hospital, where he was inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine, Galvez said Filipinos could not return to their normal lives and the economy would not recover if people refuse to get immunized and prefer Western vaccines, which would come later in the year.
“We should not wait for the so-called best vaccine. There is no best vaccine because the best vaccines are those which are effective and efficient and come early,” Galvez said at the hospital.
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Associated Press journalists Aaron Favila and Joeal Calupitan contributed to this report.
7 Bellwether Stocks Signaling a Return to NormalBellwether stocks are considered to be leading indicators about the direction of the overall economy, a specific sector, or the broader market. They are predictive stocks in that investors can use the company’s earnings reports to gauge economic strength or weakness.
The traditional definition of bellwether stocks brings to mind established, blue-chip companies. They are the home of mature brands with consumer loyalty. These may be stocks that aren’t associated with exceptional growth; some may be dividend stocks.
But there’s something different about normal this time around. If it’s true (and I think it is) that the old rules no longer apply, investors need to change the way they think about bellwether stocks. Plus, let’s face it, many stocks that we might consider to be bellwether stocks have already had a bit of a vaccine rally. That means that the easy gains are gone.
With that in mind, we’ve put together this special presentation that highlights seven of what may be termed the new bellwether stocks. These are stocks that investors should be paying attention to as the economy continues to reopen.
One quality of many of these stocks is that they are either negative for 2021 or underperforming the broader market. And that means that they are likely to have a strong upside as the economy grows.
View the "7 Bellwether Stocks Signaling a Return to Normal".
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