COVID-19 won’t stop trip to China

People wearing masks arrive at Hongqioa train station as they head home for the Lunar New Year in Shanghai.
AFP / Hector Retamal

MANILA, Philippines — With barely a week left before President Marcos’ state visit to China where COVID-19 cases are surging, the Department of Health (DOH) said the health situation in a particular area should not deter the President or anyone from performing his duties.

“The rising COVID-19 cases in a particular area should not deter us from doing our work,” DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said at a press briefing yesterday.

“We should understand that we are already currently living with the virus, so the visit to a particular place of an individual, even though detection of the COVID-19 virus there is high, should not hamper us from doing our work,” Vergeire said.

Vergeire maintained they have already apprised the President and his staff of the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines and in other countries.

President Marcos is set to visit China from Jan. 3 to 5 or 6, upon the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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