Duque willing to get coronavirus vaccine first to prove it's safe

 Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III is willing to get the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine once the Philippine Food and Drug Administration and other agencies authorizes one. 

Duque's willingness to become the first Filipinos to be injected with the COVID-19 vaccine comes after a challenge made by a senator to promote public confidence to take the vaccine.

“Yes, definitely. That’s a no brainer. I’ll take it for as long as it has undergone the scientific evaluation by the DOST’s vaccine experts panel and the ethics board review and the FDA’s (Food and Drug Administration) own technical and regulatory evaluation,” Duque said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel on Monday.

“Yes, sure (I will get vaccinated). No problem. I can also get and encourage all my fellow Cabinet members, all the other officials of government to join me,” he added.

Recently, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go challenged Duque and vaccine czar and National Task Force (NTF) Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. to take the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available in the country.

As of Monday, the country logged 1,574 additional cases and rose the total number of cases to 441,399. 24,125 are active cases (5.5%), 408,702 have recovered (92.6%), and 8,572 have died (1.94%).