Nine doctors die from coronavirus in Philippines
MANILA: Nine doctors have died in the Philippines from the coronavirus, the country’s top medical association said Thursday, as hospitals were overwhelmed and medics complained about a lack of protection on the frontlines.
The announcement of the doctors’ deaths heightened fears that the scale of the health crisis in the Philippines is much worse than is being officially reported, with the confirmed virus death toll at just 38.
On the other hand, two Philippine legislators who admitted they had tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) are facing criminal charges for allegedly violating health protocols being implemented to prevent the rapid spread of the dreaded disease. They are partylist Congressman Eric Yap Go of the House of Representatives and former Senate president Aquilino Pimentel who came under heavy fire from concerned groups and individuals for allegedly putting in danger especially the health of people with whom they had come in close contact.
In particular, Colonel Jesus Durante, the head of the Presidential Security Group (PSC), assailed Yap for allegedly violating a protocol requiring visitors to sign a document they were not being tested for the virus when he went to Malacanang Palace on March 21 to attend a meeting with President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte.
The meeting, Durante said, was held in connection with Duterte’s plan to call Congress to a special session on March 23, which approved a law declaring a state of national health emergency and grantinng the president special powers to cope with the virus that has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
“For whatever reason, he (Yap) failed to declare all the needed information. PSG troopers on duty assessed him according to the answers on the form he submitted, the basis of which he was allowed entry (to the Palace),” Durante said in a text message to media.
As a result, a total of 20 PSG and office of the president staffers who had close contact with Yap went on voluntary quarantine, Durante said, adding the lawmaker was liable for “serious consequences” for alleged violation of the Revised Penal Code particularly falsification of public documents.
On the other hand, Pimentel, also a staunch Duterte ally and former Senate president, was denounced by officials of the Makati Medical Center in suburban Makati City, Metro Manila for allegedly violating protocols while accompanying his pregnant wife who was about to give birth at the facility while admitting he was found positive for COVID-19.