Newsbriefs

Lawyer Oliver Lozano, fierce Marcos loyalist; 77

Lawyer Oliver Lozano, fierce Marcos loyalist; 77

Lawyer Oliver Lozano died at dawn on Thursday, 22 days after suffering a massive heart attack on March 22.

He was 77. Lozano, the legal counsel of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is survived by his wife, Norma (seen in photo) and three children.

Pagasa: 11 areas experienced ‘dangerous’ heat

The summer “init factor” has reached fever pitch with heat indices in 11 parts of the country hovering near the “dangerous” 41 degrees Celsius this week.

The heat index, or the “human discomfort index,” colloquially dubbed init factor, is the temperature people feel, as opposed to the temperature measured by a dry-bulb thermometer.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), 11 areas experienced heat indices of 41 degrees or higher on Thursday, with the monitoring station in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, registering the highest at 45.2 degrees, with air temperature at 34.9 degrees Celsius.  —JAYMEE T. GAMIL

DOH launches ‘Ligtas Tigdas’ vaccination campaign

The Department of Health (DOH) has launched “Ligtas Tigdas,” a campaign to curb the spread of measles through the free vaccination of infants and children 6 to 59 months old.

The last measles mass immunization campaign in 2014 resulted in a significant reduction in measles transmission, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

“However, measles cases have again begun to spread in the last quarter of 2017, leading to some significant outbreaks,” Duque said.

To address the upsurge, a National Measles Supplemental Immunization Activity will be held on April 25 to May 25 in Metro Manila and on May 9 to June 8 in Mindanao. Duque assured that the measles vaccine is safe. —TINA G. SANTOS

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