The Philippines has approved emergency use of Merck & Co Inc's Covid-19 treatment pill for adult patients at risk of developing severe illness as it tries to boost the country's arsenal of drugs to fight new variants, Reuters reports.

It also approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11 so the vaccine, which will be administered in a paediatric formulation, could be administered once it becomes available, its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief said.

FDA chief Rolando Enrique Domingo told a public briefing the benefits outweighed the risks and it was already being used for children in countries like the United States and Canada.