Headlines

COVID-19 cases in the Philippines climb to 52 as WHO declares crisis a pandemic

March 12, 2020 | 5:37pm

COVID-19 cases in the Philippines climb to 52 as WHO declares crisis a pandemic

Firemen spray disinfectant to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at a market in Manila on March 11, 2020.

AFP / Maria Tan

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 6:35 p.m.) — The Philippines’ confirmed coronavirus diseases continued to pick up on Thursday after the Department of Health tallied three infections, raising the country’s total to 52.

This comes after the World Health Organization characterized the new coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, meaning it is spreading in several regions through local transmissions.

The country’s new confirmed cases are the following:

•PH50; 69-year-old female from Quezon City who had no known travel history. She is admitted at the Medical City.

• PH52; 26-year-old male from Quezon City who had no known travel history. He is currently being treated at the Makati Medical Center.

• PH53, 79-year-old female who had a travel history to United Kingdom. She is confined in Asian Hospital and Medical Center.

A vast majority of confirmed infections in the Philippines were only detected in the last six days after a month-long lull in cases.

There are concerns that the figure may be bigger due to the country’s very limited testing program.

"So we continually ask the public to cooperate and help us in the investigation and contact tracing activities. Individuals with history of known exposure to a positive patient and/or travel to areas with local transmission, within and outside the country, presenting with mild symptoms are advised to self-isolate and be home quarantined for 14 days," Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

The spread of the virus in the country prompted the enforcement of travel ban, suspension of classes, cancelation of events and adjustment in working schemes.

First local Filipino death

DOH on late Wednesday evening reported the first local death due to the new coronavirus: a 67-year-old Filipina, identified as the country’s 35th COVID-19 case.

Patient 35 experienced symptoms on February 29 and was brought to Manila Doctors’ Hospital on March 5 along with her husband.

She passed away around noon of the same day she was diagnosed with COVID-19 infection due to severe pneumonia. The patient also had existing medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus.

Elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic lung disease and immunosuppression are vulnerable to COVID-19.

"We further urge those who are immunocompromised and are with existing health conditions to be more vigilant and avoid crowded areas and mass gatherings," Duque said.

A Chinese visitor from Wuhan, China—where the virus originated late last year—was the Philippines’ first fatality and the first COVID-19 death outside of mainland China.

The number of cases across the world has risen to more than 124,000 in more than 100 countries and territories with 4,500 deaths.

While situation in China has steadied, virus hotspots have emerged elsewhere: South Korea, Italy and Iran.

"We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

"We're deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction." — with report from Agence France-Presse

LIVE updates: COVID-19 and extended quarantine in the Philippines

WHO declares novel coronavirus a pandemic

NOVEL CORONAVIRUS

As It Happens

LATEST UPDATE: October 1, 2023 - 2:35pm

Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.

October 1, 2023 - 2:35pm

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.

Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.

The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP

August 18, 2023 - 4:25pm

The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.

The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.

So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP

August 11, 2023 - 7:07pm

The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".

The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.

In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP

June 24, 2023 - 11:50am

The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.

In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.

Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP

June 15, 2023 - 5:42pm

Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.

The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".

But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.

In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.

He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".

Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP

BrandSpace Articles