News Roundup 02 April 2020
Apr 02, 2020 • 2 min Read
Reopen public transport for exclusive use of health workers, frontliners – expert | INQUIRER.NET – It might be an opportune time to partially revive public and mass transportation – at least for the benefit of health workers and other frontliners, a transport expert said on Wednesday, as Luzon passed the midpoint in the month-long enhanced community quarantine to combat the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Opening public transport for everybody remains a no-go for renowned transport planner and economist Robert Siy, who said this was in keeping with the global norm of social distancing to contain the virus.
Moody’s turns ‘negative’ on Philippine banks | PHILSTAR.COM – Following its competitor, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its outlook for Philippine banks this year as a freeze in business because of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and Luzon lockdown impact on lender profits. From “positive,” Moody’s lowered its rating for local banks to “negative,” saying that the inevitable economic slump due to the global pandemic will deteriorate lenders’ asset quality, similar to the assessment of Fitch Ratings given last week.
Don Bosco Tech engineers developing open-source ventilators to help COVID-19 patients | Manila Bulletin – With the growing global demand for and acute shortage of medical supplies and equipment needed for treating COVID-19 patients, a team of Filipino engineers are now developing cheap ventilators to help cope with this urgent problem. In a Facebook post Thursday, Don Bosco Technical College (DBTC) Rector/President Fr. Chito Dimaranan announced the plan of engineers from the Don Bosco Mandaluyong Innovision Center under the supervision of engineer Romel Pasia to develop and produce open-source ventilators to be distributed to various hospitals in the country.
DoH to purchase 1,500 ventilators | The Manila Times – THE Department of Health (DoH) plans to purchase 1,500 ventilators to be used in the treatment of coronavirus patients, an official said Wednesday as the number of cases of the respiratory disease continued to rise.
