January 20-22, 2021 Volume 31 - No. 5 • 2 Sections - 14 Pages
USA
DATELINE High hopes or another false hope? Green cards for undocumented ‘essential workers’ on Biden’s agenda FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA
ON a recent Monday, Maribel Lapuz got up at 4:30 a.m. The 46-year-old immigrant from the Philippines braved the sub-zero weather and took the train from Jersey City, NJ to a nursing home in Brooklyn, NY, where she has worked six days a week as a caregiver since last February. A thousand miles away, Mario Ramirez drove from one house to another starting at 5:00 a.m. doing construction and plumbing work in Marietta, Georgia. Ramirez, a 52-yearold Mexican immigrant, has never missed a working day since the start of the pandemic. “When the Trump administration sent the $1,200 stimulus checks to workers,” Lapuz said, “I didn’t get it; I was ignored.” “Someone like me in this country is not eligible for unemployment,” Ramirez said. “That means I can’t stop working in order to support my family, despite the risk of COVID-19.” Their situations may soon change.
LA County expands vaccinations to residents 65 years and older by KLARIZE
MEDENILLA
County surpasses 1 million COVID-19 cases
AJPress
AS Los Angeles County continues to grapple with unprecedented coronavirus cases and deaths, the county this week moved to officially allow residents
who are 65 years and older to get vaccinated. Beginning Wednesday, Jan. 20, the county will begin to accept vaccination appointments from residents who are 65 years old or over, a move made possible through an executive order signed
Duterte extends last minute travel ban that left airport staffers, travelers in a confusing scramble LIKE countries across the world desperate to mitigate the coronavirus, the Philippines instituted a new ban on international travel from certain countries where the new strain of the virus has been detected. The latest ban includes and applies to foreign travelers coming from Pakistan, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Oman, mainland China, United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Israel, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Switzerland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Canada, Spain, United States, Portugal, India, Finland, Norway, Jordan,
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Palace hails Biden proposal to prioritize legal status for millions of immigrants by RITCHEL
MENDIOLA AJPress
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Filipina traveler from SoCal details ‘frustrating’ two days in NAIA custody following PH travel ban
by County Supervisor Hilda Solis. “Over the past several weeks, the County of Los Angeles has administered the vaccine to frontline healthcare workers, so that they can stay safe while
QR CODE. Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso shows his QR Code on his smartphone that he is already vaccinated during the COVID-19 vaccination simulation exercise at the Universidad de Manila on Tuesday, January 19. Many local government units have been preparing vaccination plans for their constituents ahead of the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines in the country. PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan
MALACAÑANG has welcomed United States President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to offer legal status to millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. “Ang mabuti sigurong mangyayari, ngayon pa lang inanunsyo na ni President-elect Biden na magpo-propose siya ng batas (One good thing we can expect, is that as early as now President-elect Biden proposed a law) to legalize the stay of 11 million illegal aliens in the United States at siyempre po may mga Pilipino na magbebenepisyo sa batas na ‘yan (and of course there are Filipinos will benefit from that law),” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said at a press briefing on Monday, January 18. Biden plans to send a groundbreaking legislative package to Congress addressing the goal of immigration reform, according to various reports. It would include a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants who are in the country without legal status.
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Relieved, but still cautious: Fil-Am health care workers get second dose of COVID-19 vaccine by CHRISTINA
M. ORIEL
AJPress
LAST month, Eva Teniola kicked off Sacramento, California’s vaccination campaign as she became the city’s first health care worker to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Three weeks later, Teniola, a 47-year-old emergency room nurse at UC Davis Medical Center, received her second jab on January 5 and completed the process to be fully inoculated. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 95% effective against COVID-19, and must be administered in two doses 21 days apart, according
to the Food and Drug Administration. The path to hope and protection after a grim year outweighed the “tolerable soreness” the nurse felt on her left arm into the next day. “I feel thankful, proud, honored, and hopeful for the safety of myself, my patients and my loved ones,” Teniola told the Asian Journal. Her experience mirrors that of hundreds of other health care workers across the country who have been on the frontlines of the devastating virus since last March. And while both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Eva Teniola, an emergency room nurse, celebrates after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-
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BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California, on December 15, 2020. She received her second dose on Jan. 5. Photo by Wayne Tilcock/ UC Davis Health
PH 2nd ‘most instagrammable’ Report: Black market for illegal place in the world for 2021 COVID vaccines emerges in PH by AJPRESS
WITH 7,017 islands, the Philippines has been hailed as the world’s second most “Instagrammable” destination in 2021. Global travel website Big 7 Travel on Thursday, January 14, released its 50 Most Instagrammable Places in the World-2021 list, placing the Philippines in second place just behind Tokyo, Japan. Some of the country’s attractions that the ranking referenced The Batad rice terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras, which was named a World Heritage Site by include the Puerto Princesa SubUNESCO. DFA photo terranean River National Park
and the rice terraces. “Home to incredible natural wonders like an underground river and tranquil rice terraces in addition to a vibrant culture and history spanning several millennia; and over 7,500 islands – the Philippines as a whole are extremely Instagrammable,” the article read. “From the bustling capital of Manila complete with colorful colonial streets to the absolute oasis of Boracay, the gram opportunities here are endless,” it added. Aside from Tokyo, the Philip-
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by RITCHEL
MENDIOLA AJPress
A BLACK market for unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines is ‘thriving’ in the Philippines, according to a recent report by the Washington Post. Only Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine has been granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) in the country, but the national government is still in talks with the American pharmaceutical firm to secure a deal. The country may only start its rollout of Pfizer vaccine in February through the COVAX facility, a
global platform that aims to ensure fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries. The Philippines also only recently secured 25 millions of China’s Sinovac, of which the first 50,000 doses are set to arrive in the country — officially — next month. However, a number of Chinese workers employed by the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) have reportedly been inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine already. “It is illegal to import unau-
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