HEADS UP: Booster Shots Start Today for Fully-Vaccinated Adults (Dec. 3)

Here’s a Heads Up from reportr on news you need to know today, Dec. 3:

NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Starting today, all fully-vaccinated adults in the Philippines are eligible for booster shots against COVID. There were 564 new cases yesterday.
• The Philippines is “more than willing” to work with trading partners on research and development for its own COVID vaccine.
• The family of an elderly woman and her son whom ex-policeman Jonel Nuezca shot dead in front of his daughter are questioning reports that he died in prison.
• Typhoon Nyatoh hovered just outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility, bringing cloudy skies to the country’s eastern coast.
• A “toxic mix” of low vaccination and testing rates is breeding new COVID-19 variants like Omicron, the WHO said.
• Travel bans due to the Omicron variant are unfair and ineffective, the head of the UN said, adding countries should not be punished for alerting the world to the existence of the new strain.
• The U.S. announced its first case of the Omicron variant, a fully vaccinated traveler from South Africa who was recovering from mild symptoms.
• The U.S. is the world’s biggest plastic polluter, with every American on average generating 130 kilos of plastic waste per year.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

• In case your main data plan is down, like Globe was earlier this week, here are alternative prepaid buckets in the 10GB tier to tide you over for work and school.
• National Vaccine Days are extended until today in some localities where interest in jabs are high.

NEWS EXPLAINED

• What’s it like to work as a GrabFood rider, economic frontliners during the pandemic and the the face of the gig economy for many Southeast Asians.

PIXEL WORLD

• Southeast Asia’s super app, Grab, is now selling shares of stock in the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s why it matters.
• Spotify Wrapped 2021 is now available so you can check which jams were at the top of your playlists on the second year of COVID-19.

ELECTION NEWS

• ‘We are not the enemy’, Sen. Imee Marcos addressed President Rodrigo Duterte after his recent attacks against her brother, presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos.
• A fifth petition to stop former senator Bongbong Marcos from running for president was filed at the Comelec, again citing his failure to file income tax returns in the 1990s.
• Vice presidential aspirant Sara Duterte-Carpio called on her father's supporters to unite after Sen. Bong Go dropped his plan to run for president.
• Motorcades are allowed, political rallies are not, the DILG reminded candidates in next year's elections, given the threat of the Omicron variant.