President Rodrigo Duterte declared a six-month state of emergency in the Philippines to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The measure is said to enable faster provision of funds and resources during the pandemic, the government in Manila said today.
The Ministry of Health reported 45 new infections with the virus. This brought the number of known cases to a total of 187. So far, at least twelve people have died of the disease Covid-19 in the Philippines.
The main island of Luzon, where more than half of the country’s over 100 million inhabitants live, was cordoned off for a month. School lessons are canceled there, public transport is at a standstill. As of Friday, international flights may no longer take off or land. Domestic flights have already been discontinued.
