Duterte to test for COVID-19, officials in isolation as virus fight escalates
MANILA, Philippines — Government officials are in self-quarantine, offices have started closing or cutting work days, while President Duterte will be tested, marking a new turn on the Philippines' fight against the spread of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).
Showing how the virus could spare no one, three Cabinet officials and two senators announced late Wednesday they would put themselves under self-quarantine after being exposed to an individual who tested positive for the deadly disease. They were Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Bases Conversion and Development Authority president and CEO Vivencio Dizon, as well as senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Nancy Binay.
On the same evening, President Duterte is said to undergo COVID-19 diagnostic test, as well as Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, according to the latter's statement to the media.
The initiative by officials to isolate themselves highlights COVID-19's contagiousness, one that has surpassed the transmission of past pathogens that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus. In the Philippines alone, the number of COVID-19 cases surged to 49 as of Wednesday, up more than eight times in the past four days.
As more than 100 countries grappled with containing the spread of the virus, the World Health Organization finally declared a global COVID-19 pandemic, a characterization it had been careful to make in the past months despite a massive increase in the number of infections outside Wuhan, China, where the virus originated, to other parts of the globe.
In the Philippines, the recent rise in reported cases only triggered anxiety among 106 million Filipinos, most evidently people in the workplace, as health officials encouraged social distancing as a primary preventive measure.
On Thursday morning, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued Administrative Order 99 that implements a four-day work week across its 13 regional offices, 93 field offices, and other bureaus starting "immediately."
The order, which would also be implemented by DOLE attached agencies like Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Professional Regulations Commission, shall be in effect "until further orders."
To make up for the lost day, DOLE instructed its employees to extend the typical eight working hours a day to 10 "anytime from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m." "Employees who report for work beyond 8 a.m. shall be considered tardy," DOLE said.
The Civil Service Commission, in a separate Memorandum Circular 07-2020, has authorized all state agencies to adopt either a four-day work week or a shifting arrangement where public servants "still meet the required 40 hours per week." Health interventions during emergencies were also encouraged.
Top economic offices shut down
Preventive measures were also tightened at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in Pasay City, where the entry of foreign and local visitors were discouraged "unless absolutely necessary," Deputy Governor Ma. Almasara Cyd Tuano-Amador said in a statement to Philstar.com. Face-to-face meetings were also kept to a minimum, while video conference briefings are now preferred.
"We discourage local and foreign personal travel of BSP personnel," Amador added.
Beside BSP’s office, the Department of Finance’s six-storey building reportedly will undergo disinfection today and so is the National Economic and Development Authority in Ortigas.
ADB HQ closes
In a separate announcement on Thursday, Manila-based Asian Development Bank said it is closing its headquarters in Ortigas "to undertake cleaning and disinfecting" after a visitor there tested positive for COVID-19.
"Bank operations will continue. ADB management will make a decision in coming days on when to re-open the bank premises," ADB said in a statement. Around 75% of the multilateral lender's over 2,500 employees are based in Manila.
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