Duterte: Gov’t procuring masks against n-CoV
Credit to Author: Ma. Reina Leanne Tolentino, TMT| Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2020 16:32:28 +0000
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte assured the public on Monday night that the government was addressing the shortage in supply of masks.
“We are procuring and we have supplies coming in…The supply is depleted because there is an emergency and there’s a need for it. So everybody’s buying. That’s the reason why there is a scarce supply in the market…E may virus e, kaya ‘yung virus ang nagpamahal niyan,” Duterte said in part.
“But if you’re asking…is government doing something to buy more, to protect more, yes we are doing it. We are not just sitting down here. That’s why we called for this conference. And we have resources coming in,” he said.
“We do not want to give you the expectations because that’s something which cannot be delivered almost all on time. And you know, sometimes when we announce it, it is taken differently, in a different light,” he said.
Last week, the Department of Health confirmed the first case of the novel coronavirus in the Philippines. The victim—a 38-year-old woman from Wuhan, China—tested positive for the n-CoV based on laboratory results from the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia.
On Sunday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd confirmed that a Chinese man died of the 2019 n-CoV acute respiratory disease. The fatality was the 44-year-old partner of the first reported victim.