China docs to help PH fight Covid-19

TALKS have begun to bring a medical team from China to the Philippines to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana said on Monday.

Sta. Romana revealed the discussions for a Chinese medical team during the Laging Handa (Always Ready) briefing hosted by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).

“Actually, this is part of the plan. [Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro] Locsin

[Jr.] has already mentioned that there was a medical team being prepared,” Sta. Romana said in English and Filipino.

Sta. Romana also said there was a “continuous airlift” of coronavirusrelated supplies from China to the Philippines.

There were medical supplies bought by the Filipino-Chinese, he said.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the department had no problem with letting Chinese doctors into the country to help in the coronavirus response.

“None Ma’am. That was why we need to clarify that because we were the ones who wrote it,” Vergeire, DoH spokesman, said.

She said, “[W]e have this official document where we have officially communicated to our embassy here, asking if we could ask or request for experts from their country (China) because we wanted to learn from them and seek their advice on the measures we have adopted against Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019).”

“We want them to share their expertise because we saw how their country has stemmed the increase in the number of cases and fatalities,” she said.

Sen. Aquilino Martin “Koko” Pimentel 3rd urged President Rodrigo Duterte to ask China to send doctors to help the Philippines fight Covid-19.

The senator, the President’s partymate with the Partido Demokratiko PilipinoLakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban ) made the appeal on Sunday amid the shortage of frontliners needed to fight the pandemic.

Pimentel aired his appeal to Duterte through a text message to mediamen, “Mr. President please ask for help from our good friend China.”

“China is our friend. Let us humbly ask for help from our friend China,” said the president of the ruling PDP-Laban.

“They can send us their experts in handling Covid-19 as a public health issue as well as some experienced doctors who have nursed people back to good health and also share some possible cure or remedy to the disease,” Pimentel said.

Reacting to Pimentel’s appeal to the President, Locsin Jr. said on Twitter, “Jesus Christ Koko, I’m doing that already and the help has been coming.”

Locsin also lauded the Manila branch of the Bank of China Limited for donating 500,000 disposable medical masks to the Department of Health (DoH).

“Thank you, Mr. [ Chinese] Ambassador [Huang Xilian], despite backbiters China’s generosity neither flags nor fails,” Locsin said on Twitter.

Another senator, Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros, is pressing for mass testing.

“Urgency is needed for us to defeat the Covid-19 crisis. Mass testing will save lives,” Hontiveros said on Twitter.

She said the following must be prioritized for mass testing: all who have Covid-19 symptoms; all frontliners, especially health workers; the elderly; and communities with recorded Covid-19 cases.