JULY 24-27, 2021 Volume 31 - No. 58 • 2 Sections – 18 Pages
LA County reports rise in COVID-19 cases anew by AJPRESS
LOS Angeles County is observing a “rapid rise” in COVID-19 transmission with cases doubling over the last 10 days, according to the county Department of Public Health. As of Thursday, July 22, the county recorded 2,767 new cases of COVID-19, resulting to an 80% increase. This latest update is the highest number of cases since February. The positivity rate in the county is 5.2%, an increase from the rate of 1.2% on June 15 when physically distancing restrictions and capacity limits were lifted across all sectors in the county
and state. There are 645 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 22% of these people are in the ICU. Last week, there were 406 people hospitalized with COVID-19 illness. Health officials associate the rise in cases partly due to the Delta variant. The risk of increased spread of this variant within the county remains high as about 4 million residents are not yet vaccinated. “The Delta variant, because it is so much more infectious than any virus strain we have seen before, requires us to add additional layers of prou PAGE A2
Tokyo Olympics: Get to know the 19 President Duterte to athletes representing the Philippines
DATELINE
USA review addendum
FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA
US Senate confirms Gina Ortiz Jones for Air Force Undersecretary
FILIPINA American Iraq War veteran Gina Ortiz Jones has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the undersecretary of the Air Force, becoming the first woman of color to serve in the role. The Senate on Thursday, July 22, confirmed the 40-year-old Iraq War veteran, who was nominated by President Joe Biden back in April. Jones, who is openly gay, grew up in San Antonio, Texas with a single mother, Victorina Ortiz, who is originally from Pangasinan, Philippines, as previously reported by the Asian Journal. She served in the Air Force for three years as an intelligence officer and was deployed to Iraq during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era. In addition to her Air Force service, Jones was a special adviser at the Defense Intelligence Agency and was a director for investment at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, before leaving in June 2017. She was the Democratic Party’s nominee in
by RITCHEL
MENDIOLA AJPress
A SIDE agreement or “addendum” in implementing the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States has been submitted to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, according to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. “There is no change in the VFA. The document will not be changed but there will be some addendum, side agreement to implement the VFA,” he said Wednesday, July 21, during a virtual forum ahead of Duterte’s State of the Nation Address. Without elaborating on what was included in the addendum, Lorenzana said that he would sign the agreement with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Ausu PAGE A2
SINCE it first participated in the Olympics in 1924, the Philippines has managed to take home a total of 10 medals, of which three were silver and seven were bronze. No Filipino has ever won a gold medal, but the country is certainly not giving up on that elusive golden dream. The Tokyo Summer Olympics, which were pushed back a year due to the pandemic, is set to take place from July 23 to August 8. As the anticipated games begin, the country has pinned its hopes on its 19-strong contingent in bringing home the much-coveted gold. This year, the Philippines is sending the largest athlete delegation since the 2000 Sydney games. The 2021 team also gives a historu PAGE A4
REPRESENTATIVES. Filipino boxer Eumir Marcial and judoka Kiyomi Watanabe proudly carried the Philippine flag and lead the country’s delegation during the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, July 23. Marcial and Watanabe were decked in the Philippines’ official tracksuit while the sports officials including chef de mission Mariano “Nonong” Araneta wore barongs designed by Rajo Laurel. Photos courtesy of Philippine Sports Commission
PH gov’t revises ‘green lane’ protocols for fully-vaccinated travelers by RITCHEL
Travelers from US still required to undergo 10-day quarantine
MENDIOLA
AJPress
Force (IATF) approved the revised rules for “green lanes” that will apply to fully-vaccinated international arriving passengers to the Philippines beginning July 26. “International arriving passengers to the Philippines, regardless of point of entry, need only to undergo a sev-
en-day facility-based quarantine and RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) testing on the fifth day, with the day of arrival of being the first day,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday, July 23. Individuals must fulfill the follow-
ing conditions: • Their port of origin must be a “green” country, or jurisdiction with low COVID-19 risk; • They stayed exclusively in a “green” country in the last 14 days prior to their arrival in the Philip-
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Meet the Filipina American Olympians representing Team USA by KLARIZE
MEDENILLA AJPress
THE drugmaker Pfizer recently announced that vaccinated people are likely to need a booster shot to be effectively protected against new variants of COVID-19 and that the company would apply for Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization for the shot. Top government health officials immediately and emphatically announced that the booster isn’t needed right now — and held firm to that position even after Pfizer’s top scientist made his case and shared preliminary data with them last week. This has led to confusion. Should the nearly 60% of adult Americans who have been fully vaccinated seek out a booster or not? Is the protection that has allowed them to see loved ones and go out to dinner fading? Ultimately, the question of whether a booster is needed is unlikely to determine the FDA’s decision. If recent history is predictive, booster shots will be here before long. That’s because of the outdated, 60-year-old basic standard the FDA uses to authorize medicines
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MENDIOLA AJPress
to VFA with the US
THE Philippine government’s COVID-19 task force has revised the u PAGE A2 protocols for fully-vaccinated travelers to qualify for “green lanes” upon arrival in the country. The country’s Inter-Agency Task
Necessary or not, COVID booster shots are probably on the horizon
by RITCHEL
Paige McPherson
Photo from Instagram/@aka_mcfierce
THE summer games are officially underway. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics — pushed back one year due to the pandemic — began on Friday, July 23 and are set to end Aug. 8. Though the onset of new viral variants and the ongoing surges continue to distract athletes and fans alike, national and ethnic pride continue to excite fans across the world. As reported in the Asian Journal, the Philippines sent its largest delegation of athletes since the 2020 games in Sydney with more than half of them being Filipinas. Not to be outdone, the U.S. is sending a handful of historic Filipina Americans to represent the stars and stripes in a variety of events. Since the days of legendary Filipina American Olympic gold medal diver Vicki Draves — who was the first Asian American to ever win gold medals and the first American woman to win two gold medals in diving — Asian American athletes have been looking to make their own marks on the Olympic stage. Here are a few of the Filipina American athletes competing in this year’s Olympic games. Paige McPherson (taekwondo) This time around, Team USA only has two
taekwondo athletes (both of whom are women), including 30-year-old Paige McPherson, who previously competed in the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic games. Nicknamed “McFierce,” the decorated competitor became the first American female taekwondo competitor to qualify for the Olympics three times. A native of Texas and graduate of Miami-Dade College, McPherson was adopted along with four other siblings by Susan and Dave McPherson. She is of Filipino and African American descent and according to an Instagram post on June 18, McPherson met her birth mother, who is Filipino, and her half-siblings for the first time. “I called my birth mom, who lives in Sacramento, and told her I was in San Francisco, and we all met at Union Square,” McPherson told the Miami Herald in June. “It was surreal to meet people that look like me, all four of us have the gap between our front teeth. I know I’m Filipino and know I’m Black but to be able to meet my Mom, who is Asian, it gave me comfort in my identity. Growing up in South Dakota, I had no opportunity to get to know my culture of being Filipino or even being African u PAGE A3