Vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines
The Philippines began its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Monday with the government struggling to reassure a population wary of foreign-made vaccines. Some 600,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine arrived on Sunday.
President Rodrigo Duterte urged the public to get vaccinated, telling Filipinos to “please set your fears aside.” Regulators who issued emergency-use authorization for the vaccine recommended that it not be administered to health workers or people age 60 and older, citing uncertainty over its efficacy rate among those groups.
Recent surveys have shown that almost half of Filipinos are unwilling to receive any coronavirus vaccine because of safety concerns. The reluctance may also stem from a vaccine scare during a dengue immunization program in 2017, as well as distrust of China-made vaccines.
Context: The Philippines has had one of the worst outbreaks in Southeast Asia. The government aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its 100 million residents this year. It will receive the Pfizer doses later this year, and the AstraZeneca shots soon.
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.
In other developments:

■ Prime Minister Narendra Modi was vaccinated against the coronavirus on Monday as India began the next phase of its inoculation drive to include anyone age 60 or older.

■ Days after the House of Representatives passed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic aid bill, the sweeping measure moved to the Senate for a possible vote this week.

■ The European Union will propose issuing a certificate called a Digital Green Pass that would allow let those who have been vaccinated to travel more freely, said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.
The New York Times