Coronavirus: panic buying in Manila, some flee to countryside as first Filipino fatality confirmed and cases rise to 49
- Supermarkets were packed with shoppers buying items from toilet paper to beer after the president gave a speech meant to reassure residents
- Some people are leaving the capital as health authorities prepare to impose lockdowns if local transmissions get out of control
Health secretary Francisco Duque told lawmakers that “the rise of a local transmission is a big possibility”, which would trigger a lockdown.
The Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed the death of a 67-year-old Filipino woman with no history of travel abroad or exposure to a known case. She was the first Filipino to die from the disease, although a Chinese traveller, one of the country’s earliest cases, died previously.
The government also confirmed 16 new infections without elaborating on the cases, although assistant health secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said one of the patients – an 82-year-old Filipino woman – “remained intubated”.
In addition, the man spread the illness to three other people, including two 69-year-old relatives, according to Marcelino Teodoro, the mayor of Marikina City, an area northeast of Manila that is home to almost half a million residents.
