Monday, August 3, 2020

Metro, 4 other areas back on lockdown. Inquirer Newsletter. August 4, 2020

‘TIME OUT’ Front-liners of Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center demonstrate outside the hospital on Monday noon to protest the death of a co-worker, Judyn Bonn Suerte, who succumbed to COVID-19 on July 31. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Business

Remittances slump in May as pandemic hits OFW jobs

Dollars sent to the Philippines by the country’s large expatriate workforce declined by nearly a fifth in May as more Filipinos lost their jobs overseas due to the global economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the central bank. —STORY BY Daxim L. Lucas

News

DOH SEES OPPORTUNITY to boost COVID-19 response

The Department of Health (DOH) admitted on Monday that while the reimposition of a two-week lockdown on Metro Manila and four nearby provinces would not be enough to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, it would help buy the government time to recalibrate and strengthen its response against the pandemic. —STORY BY Jovic Yee

Entertainment

Ces Drilon after the ABS-CBN shutdown

Ces Drilon and I fondly call each other “VS” (V sister) because our friendship blossomed when we were part of the award-winning play, “The Vagina Monologues.” Aside from being a friend, I am her fan, as well. I will miss her perky presence on free TV. —STORY BY Dolly Anne Carvajal

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Metro, 4 other areas back on lockdown

By Julie M. Aurelio

More than 27 million Filipinos in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces go back into lockdown on Tuesday after a warning from exhausted health workers that the Philippines is losing the battle against the new coronavirus.

Heeding the health workers’ warning, President Duterte late on Sunday directed local officials in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal to enforce modified enhanced community quarantine in their provinces anew for the next two weeks, and to see to it that cities, towns and villages are free of the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory ailment COVID-19.

In an open letter to the President on Saturday, 80 medical groups representing 80,000 doctors and a million nurses said they were exhausted and falling ill, and warned that the health-care system would collapse without tighter controls.

More than 5,000 medical workers have contracted the virus, including 500 in the past week, Department of Health (DOH) figures show. Thirty-eight have died so far.

The health workers urged the government to place Metro Manila and outlying provinces back on enhanced community quarantine, or lockdown, for two weeks to give them “timeout” to recover from exhaustion and allow the government to recalibrate its response to the pandemic. —WITH REPORTS FROM MARLON RAMOS, ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND AFP INQ

Editorial

Harmful advice

It took the Integrated Chemists of the Philippines (ICP), not the Department of Health (DOH), to correct the dangerous suggestion—coming from no less than the President of the country—to use gasoline as a disinfectant against COVID-19. Following President Duterte’s remarks on Friday that he was not joking about his advice to use gasoline to disinfect hands and face masks, the ICP posted this warning on Facebook: 'The ICP reminds everyone that gasoline should not be used to clean or disinfect things.

Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net