COVID-19 infections in the Philippines rise to 64
MANILA, Philippines (Update 1, 9:50 p.m.) — Twelve new coronavirus disease infections were confirmed in the Philippines on Friday, raising the country’s total to 64, a day after the government announced a new set of measures in a bid to contain the contagion.
Since the country first detected an infection in late January, five people have died from the disease that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Four of the five virus-related deaths in the Philippines were reported this week.
The country’s new confirmed cases are the following:
- PH53: A 30-year-old male from Mandaluyong City. He is admitted at The Medical City.
- PH54: A 40-year-old male from Pasig City. He was brought to Ortigas Hospital and Health Care Center.
- PH55: A 59-year-old female. She is confined at Cardinal Santos Medical Center.
- PH56: A 41-year-old male. He is being treated at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City
- PH57: A 65-year-old male. He is admitted at The Medical City.
- PH58: A 45-year-old female from Makati City. She was brought to The Medical City.
- PH59: A 27-year-old male. He is being treated at the Makati Medical Center.
- PH60: A 49-year-old male from Makati City. He is being treated at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City.
- PH61: A 70-year-old female. She is admitted at the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center.
- PH62: A 35-year-old female. She was brought to Ortigas Hospital and Health Care Center.
- PH63: A 33-year-old male from Rizal. He is confined at Marikina Valley Medical Center.
- PH64: A 32-year-old male from Manila. He is being treated at Bataan St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center.
The Department of Health said it is conducting intensive information-gathering and contact tracing on the new cases.
Elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic lung disease and immunosuppression are vulnerable to COVID-19.
President Rodrigo Duterte, during a nationally televised address, announced plans to halt domestic travel to and from Metro Manila—home to nearly 13 million people—as the Philippines raised its alarm to Code Red Sub-Level 2.
“It’s a lockdown. There is no struggle of power here. It is a matter of protecting and defending you from COVID-19,” Duterte said.
He also announced a ban on mass gatherings, extended school closure and prohibition on the entry of foreigners from places where the virus is spreading.
“The decision to implement a community quarantine was made in the best interest of the public. I enjoin everyone—young and old—to cooperate fully with our government,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
He also urged the public to stop hoarding hygiene and sanitation products.
“It does not help us fight off COVID-19. Realize that when you hoard, you are being part of the problem by denying the rest of your fellowmen the means to protect themselves,” Duque said.
Cases globally now stand at more than 125,000 and 4,600 deaths.
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
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
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
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
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
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
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