Philippines logs 205 new COVID-19 cases, tally rises to 12,718
MANILA, Philippines (Updated, 5:34 p.m.) — The Philippines saw its novel coronavirus reach 12,718 Monday with the addition of 205 more COVID-19 infections, the Department of Health said.
Of the new cases, 83% were reported in outbreak epicenter Metro Manila, which is on its third day of eased confinement measures that allowed the reopening of shopping malls and the return of Filipinos to work at half capacity in many industries.
Central Visayas only accounted for one percent of the additional infections, while 16% were spread out across the archipelago.
DOH added that 94 more people have recovered from COVID-19, pushing the number of those who have survived the disease to 2,729.
But seven more died due to the illness. This brought to 831 the nation’s fatality count.
Data from the department showed that 184,857 people in the Philippines had been tested as of May 16.
Government: Threat is still here
Malacañang and DOH on Monday warned that the threat of the novel coronavirus remains even as authorities began relaxing confinement measures after a two-month lockdown.
Photos and videos of mall-goers flocking to shopping centers and seemingly ignoring safety protocols over the weekend went viral after movement restrictions were eased to revitalize the economy paralyzed by the pandemic.
“Hindi pa tapos ang COVID-19. Tayo ay nag-uumpisa pa lamang sa panibagong kabanata ng laban na ito,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
(The threat of COVID-19 is not yet over. We’ve only just begun.)
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the country’s health system and resources could be overstretched if the coronavirus outbreak in the Philippines worsens.
Metro Manila and other high-risk areas have been placed under “modified” enhanced community quarantine beginning mid-May. Other areas in the country are in varying levels of community quarantine.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed 315,023 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year. There have been more than 4.7 million individuals infected in 196 countries and territories. — with a report from Agence France-Presse
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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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