Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. will raise equitable access to vaccines, pandemic recovery and the South China Sea issue at the 54th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and Related Meetings to be held virtually from Aug. 2 to 6.

The Department of Education is mobilizing for the conduct this week of the national schools maintenance program, popularly known as Brigada Eskwela, even with face-to-face classes still not allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government will allow vaccination sites in Metro Manila to operate until nighttime during the implementation of enhanced community quarantin, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said yesterday, stressing that the measure is needed to reach the target 250,000 daily vaccinations in the region amid the threat posed by the COVID-19 Delta variant.

Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado will take a two-week medical leave starting today after being hospitalized for COVID-19.

Congressional deliberations on the proposed measure compelling Filipinos to have themselves vaccinated against COVID-19 will start soon as the country tries to contain the pandemic’s more contagious Delta variant.