News Roundup 28 June 2020
Jun 28, 2020 • 2 min Read
Doctors in remote barrios protest sudden reassignment to Cebu City | PHILSTAR.COM – Doctors under the government’s Doctors to the Barrios (DTTBs) program were not informed about what they called an “abrupt exploitative order” to assign them to private hospitals in Cebu City. The transfer order included no guidelines and protocols to protect the doctors in this temporary reassignment and did not consult affected stakeholders, the organization said Sunday. This came after rural health physicians were informed on Friday that they would be pulled out of from their assigned municipalities in western and eastern Visayas to report for duty in unspecified private hospitals in Cebu City where a spike in coronavirus cases has been reported. The doctors said the order “was only supported by a request letter addressed to the Undersecretary of Health for Field Implementation and Coordination Team for Visayas and Mindanao and an unsigned advanced copy of an Office Order, respectively,” while no proof of an agreement between the private institutions and the health department was made available for discussion among all parties involved.
Coronavirus cases now at 35,455 with 653 new cases — DOH | PHILSTAR.COM – Health authorities recorded 653 more patients of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Sunday, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to 35,455. In its latest tally on Sunday afternoon, the Department of Health also tacked on 8 more deaths and 258 additional recoveries, bringing their totals to 1,244 and 9,686 respectively.
WHO: PH has fastest rise in virus cases in Western Pacific | INNQUIRER.NET – In nearly two weeks, the Philippines had the fastest rise in coronavirus cases in the Western Pacific region, more than three times that of Singapore which is battling a second wave of infection. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that the country has logged 8,143 new cases since June 16, the highest among 22 countries in the region.
No ‘militarization’ in Cebu City — Eleazar | The Manila Times – LT. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar assured residents of Cebu City on Saturday that the deployment of Special Action Force (SAF) commandos and soldiers in Cebu City was not a form of “militarization.” Eleazar, the commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Covid, said the deployment was a tried-and-tested formula in effective enforcement of the quarantine rules. “The deployment of police commandos and soldiers here in Cebu City is not militarization as some people would describe it, and therefore, is not a wrong approach,” Eleazar said in a statement.
