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| Duterte has declared a public health emergency, but says there's no need to lock down Metro Manila |
Within just a day, the total number of confirmed cases of
the coronavirus disease, Covid-19, in the Philippines
President Duterte also announced that all schools in Metro
Manila will be closed from tomorrow, Mar. 10 to Saturday, Mar. 14.
“Tingnan natin incubation period,” he said, referring to the
time the virus is expected to latch on to a person, either from a contaminated
place, or another individual.
Earlier, the President declared a public health emergency
across the country as the number of confirmed cases surged.
With the proclamation, the Department of Health is empowered
to call on the police and other law enforcement agencies to provide assistance
in addressing the threat of the virus.
All government agencies and local government units are
enjoined to render all needed assistance while citizens and tourists are urged
to comply with lawful directives.
But he rejected a call for Metro Manila to be locked down
amid the contagion.
“We haven’t reached that kind of contamination. There will
be a time I suppose, I hope not. I hope God will have mercy on the Filipino
people. It’s too early for that,” Duterte said.
The new cases are all Filipinos, eight males and two
females, some with recent travels to virus-hit areas like Japan , Australia and Taiwan
However, the cause of infection for most could not be
traced, further raising fears that the virus is now being spread from person to
person.
The first locally transmitted case was reported as case no 5
on Saturday. He is a 62-year-old Filipino male with hypertension and diabetes
who was admitted to Medical City in Pasig
He had no known travel history, and frequented a mosque in
Greenhills, San Juan
City
For an entire month, the number of confirmed cases remained
at three, with one death, all of them Chinese nationals who had entered the Philippines
The number climbed up to six on Saturday, then 10 on Sunday.
By Monday noon, the cases doubled to 20. A few hours later, four more were
announced by President Duterte.
He cited the location of the new cases as West Crame in San Juan , Project 6 in Quezon City
Earlier, Assistant Health Secretary Ma Rosario Vergeire said
that information about the residence and whereabouts of the 10 new cases was
still being gathered.
But she said the Department of Health had already started tracing
all close contacts of the new cases.
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| WHO graph shows data on the 10 cases confirmed earlier Monday |
A report from the World Health Organization subsequently
showed four are confined in Makati Medical Center ,
two in Tricity Medical
Center in Pasig
City , two in UniHealth
Paranaque Hospital ,
one in Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, and one in The Medical City,
also in Pasig
According to Vergeire, the sudden increase in the
number of confirmed cases was due to the Department of Health’s “intensified
surveillance” on suspected cases of the disease.
Despite the sudden spike in the number of cases, she said no
lockdown would be necessary unless sustained community transmission in a
particular area is recorded.
That means, if the cases being recorded are no longer linked
to each other.
If this happens, she said the DOH will raise the alert
status on Covid-19 to Code Red Sub-level 2. Code Red Sub-level 1 was raised on
Saturday after the health agency confirmed local transmission of the disease on
the 5th case.
Late Sunday night, DOH released a statement confirming four
Covid-19 cases that brought the total number of infections in the country to
10, including the first case of local transmission.
The four patients were separately admitted to the Makati Medical
Center , St. Luke’s Medical Center
in Taguig City ,
The Medical City in Ortigas, and St. Luke’s Medical
Center in Quezon City
Four countries have so far imposed a travel ban or
restrictions on travelers from the Philippines :
Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , Cook Islands and Qatar Israel has also issued an advisory canceling all
scheduled pilgrimages to the Holy Land .
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