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Raissa Robles

Reuters

The Philippines on Tuesday recorded its largest daily increase in coronavirus deaths and infections, as it awaited the arrival of a Chinese medical team to support its embattled frontline health care workers.
Ten more people died from the Covid-19 disease, bringing the total to 88, while 538 new infections were reported for a total of 2,084.
Among those included in the latest count of positives is former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, whose condition, according to his spokesman Victor Rodriguez, is now “stable” and “improving”.
Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the ministry had opened new labs and run more than 15,000 tests, a five-fold jump from about 3,000 last week. She added that more hospitals were seeking government approval to function as testing centres.
Medical evacuation plane crashes at Manila airport in Philippines, killing eight on board
“We have six more laboratories to conduct tests,” Vergeire said. “We are also conducting contact tracing to find possibly infected persons.”
Philippine hospitals are struggling with a shortage of protective gear, manpower and testing capacity, as are medical facilities around the world. At least 13 doctors have died as of Tuesday and the Philippine Medical Association estimates that over 5 per cent of health workers are currently under quarantine due to Covid-19.

The country’s ambassador to China, Chito Sta Romana, confirmed a statement by the Chinese embassy in Manila that Beijing would send an expert team to the Philippines to provide technical advice on epidemic prevention and control as well as treatment protocols.
Sta Romana said the team was made of up of “experienced doctors and public health officials who specialise in infectious diseases”, but could not say when they would arrive.
An infectious disease doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Chinese medical team would only give advice.
Coronavirus: in Philippines, leak shows politicians and relatives received ‘VIP’ testing
“There was an offer to see patients but it was rebuffed because of local laws on practice,” he said, referring to a law that bans foreign doctors from practising medicine in the Southeast Asian nation.
Philippine foreign secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr on Saturday tweeted that the Department of Health was “blocking their arrival”. His tweet, now deleted, had said “Don’t piss me off. Let them in.”
Health secretary Francisco Duque told local media that Locsin took down his tweet after hearing that the department was preparing hotel accommodation and translators for the expert team.


According to an ethnic Chinese businessman who is a member of a foundation involved in the visit, the team was supposed to have arrived on March 27. It will comprise doctors, nurses and researchers from hospitals and disease prevention agencies in Fujian province who specialise in areas such as infectious diseases, emergency medicine and integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine.
An estimated 1.2 million ethnic Chinese call the Philippines – which has a population of 107 million people – home, with many tracing their ancestry to Fujian province.
The businessman, who declined to be named, showed This Week in Asia a screenshot of the team’s name list, which included an official from Fujian province’s United Work Front Department, the controversial Communist Party department responsible for promoting its influence around the world.
 Coronavirus: US cancels war games with Philippines due to outbreak
Beijing has dispatched teams of medical experts to countries struggling with a surge in Covid-19 cases, including Iran and Italy, and has also donated testing kits and other medical supplies.
The Philippine health department apologised over the weekend for comments made by undersecretary Vergeire that some of the kits donated by China had yielded only “40 per cent accuracy” and could not be used.
The Chinese embassy in Manila had rejected the suggestions, and shared a mobile text message supposedly from Duque to Ambassador Huang Xilian that thanked the Chinese government for the test kits.

Vergeire also issued a correction to her earlier statement, and said she was referring to “another brand” of test kits from China that a private foundation was going to donate.
Political risk analyst Ramon Casiple, who chairs the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms, said at this point in the Philippines’ coronavirus fight “any help is welcome”.
He said he did not expect any negative political backlash towards the Chinese experts, even though on social media Filipinos have continued to blame China for failing to contain the outbreak in Hubei province, where cases first emerged.
Coronavirus: Philippines’ Luzon lockdown hits domestic helper agencies in Singapore
The Philippines has locked down its main island of Luzon – where about a third of the population lives, and where 70 per cent of economic activity takes place – for the past two weeks, resulting in supply chain disruptions and millions of poor families losing any source of income.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s critics have questioned what he has done with emergency powers granted to him that came bundled with a 275 billion peso (US$5.4 billion) emergency fund. His weekly report to Congress showed that Duterte, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development, had managed to deliver emergency food aid to only 4,753 of the 18 million targeted families.


On Tuesday, finance secretary Carlos Dominguez said the government was planning a stimulus package to help companies and the poorest households.
“This planned stimulus package is already being crafted and will be responsive to the uncertainties of the situation,” Dominguez said in a statement, without elaborating. “At this point, nobody knows how bad this pandemic will get or how long it will last.”
Senate defence committee chair Panfilo Lacson warned that some people “are eating corn fungus to stave off hunger” and “if the executive does not act with dispatch, we may have a serious social problem to face”.
Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison agreed with Lacson but added, “it is therefore just for the broad masses of the people to be outraged and demand collective action against Duterte, his servant generals and the Department of Health because of their incompetence, corruption and stupidity.”
However, Senate President Vicente Sotto urged the public to “cut [Duterte] some slack”.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg

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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: Philippines awaits Chinese expert team as cases rise to more than 2,000

A fireman sprays disinfectant from the back of a fire truck to help curb the spread of the coronavirus during a localised quarantine in Manila. Photo: AP

Police personnel hold up placards reminding people to stay at home amid concerns of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Manila on March 31, 2020. - The main Philippine island of Luzon, home to 55 million people which includes the capital Manila, is in the second week of a lockdown to contain the spread of the disease. (Photo by Maria TAN / AFP)

In this March 30, 2020, photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte smiles as he addresses the nation during a live broadcast in Malacanang, Manila, Philippines. Duterte is on quarantine for more than a week after meeting with officials who have been exposed to people infected with the coronavirus. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (King Rodriguez, Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)

Medical evacuation plane crashes at Manila airport in Philippines, killing eight on board

Airport officials at the scene of a medical evacuation plane crash on the runway of Manila International Airport. Photo: Reuters

Coronavirus: in Philippines, leak shows politicians and relatives received ‘VIP’ testing

Volunteers and government workers are disinfected inside a cubicle before they enter the local city hall to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Manila, the Philippines. Photo: AP

A woman crosses an empty street in Manila, Philippines on Monday March 23, 2020. The Philippine Congress is holding an emergency session to deliberate on a government request to declare a national emergency and allow the president to swiftly punish local officials who defy orders and grant him a standby power to take over private companies amid the coronavirus crisis. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Coronavirus: US cancels war games with Philippines due to outbreak

Philippine Marines (R) come out of an amphibious assault vehicle during a joint military exercise with their US counterparts in October 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE

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The team is expected to provide technical advice on epidemic prevention and control as well as treatment protocols
The Southeast Asian nation on Tuesday recorded its largest daily increase in coronavirus deaths and infections



The team is expected to provide technical advice on epidemic prevention and control as well as treatment protocols.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

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Coronavirus: Philippines awaits Chinese expert team as cases rise to more than 2,000

The team is expected to provide technical advice on epidemic prevention and control as well as treatment protocols The Southeast Asian nation on Tuesday recorded its largest daily increase in coronavirus deaths and infections

The team is expected to provide technical advice on epidemic prevention and control as well as treatment protocols

The Southeast Asian nation on Tuesday recorded its largest daily increase in coronavirus deaths and infections