News Roundup 29 July 2021
Jul 29, 2021 • 6 min Read
5,735 new coronavirus infections push Philippines caseload to 1.57M | PHILSTAR.COM – Local health authorities on Thursday reported 5,735 more COVID-19 infections, bringing the national caseload to 1,572,287. The Department of Health in its bulletin said one laboratory failed to submit testing results.
- Active cases: 56,273 or 3.6% of the total
- Recoveries: 4,069, pushing total to 1,488,437
- Deaths: 176, bringing total to 27,577
Face shield talks should include other experts, civil engineer says | PHILSTAR.COM – A wind dynamics expert has called for a wider range of insights on the country’s discussion on using face shields, and not just from those in the medical field. The Philippines mandated the wearing of face shield on top of face mask in December last year. That policy has since faced calls to scrap, but authorities have insisted it gives additional protection against COVID-19. In June, Senate President Vicente Sotto III sought for a probe in the chamber on whether face shields truly work in helping prevent infections. Civil engineer Joshua Agar hopes that avenue would not be monopolized by just medical professionals. He told Philstar.com that face shields are more of a physical intervention rather than a medical one. “They need to merit and allow expert opinion coming from other fields,” he said. “Especially us who know face shields intervene.” Agar explained that its use is recommended in hospitals, especially for those treating coronavirus patients. But he said it should no longer apply to those outside medical facilities who are also following other health protocols. “People wearing face masks are already being cautious,” Agar said in Filipino. “So face masks mainly stop huge droplets and face shields then become unnecessary.” The wind dynamics expert suggested that, contrary to its purpose, face shields may instead increase the chance of transmission. He said particles could accumulate in the region underneath the face shield due to negative pressure. The virus, Agar added, could also be carried through smaller droplets which act as aerosols that are usually suspended in the air and carried by wind. “In a nutshell, in wind flow, you have the windward region and leeward region,” he said. In the former, Agar said there is positive pressure where particles are quick to disperse in the air. Negative pressure, on the other hand, is in former where suspended particles accumulate. “Face masks should be maintained to prevent droplets,” Agar added. “Apart from that, physical distancing should also be followed to prevent being infected.”
OVP ‘insulted’ by Trillanes’ claims vs Robredo in meeting with Lacson | INQUIRER.NET – A spokesperson of Vice President Leni Robredo branded as “insulting” the insinuations made by former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV that her decision to meet up with Senator Panfilo Lacson undermined the struggles of fellow lawmaker, detained Senator Leila de Lima. Robredo recently met with Lacson, who has recently announced his presidential bid. Trillanes found the meeting unsavory, saying Robredo met with a senator who allegedly supported De Lima’s incarceration. De Lima has been detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame for over four years now due to drug-related charges — which she claimed were spurred by just political vendetta. But Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said Trillanes’s assertion is uncalled for as Robredo has been very supportive of the lady senator’s plight. “Well first of all, I am insulted that he would even bring that up, ‘di ba. I am insulted at the insinuation that the Vice President has somehow, you know, not done all she can to support Senator Leila de Lima,” Gutierrez told ABS-CBN News Channel on Thursday. “If you go through all these last four years ever since Senator Leila was imprisoned, the Vice President has been very consistent in speaking about the unjustness of what happened to Senator Leila,” he added. Aside from Lacson, the Office of the Vice President also confirmed Robredo‘s meeting with Senator Richard Gordon — who also expressed interest in running for president — in order to create a broad coalition for the 2022 national elections. Gutierrez further explained during the ANC interview that the talks were merely to explore a possible alliance, but no confirmation has been made as these were merely initial talks. “It’s a meeting. It’s a conversation, ano. It’s an initial exploration of ‘can we work together? Would you still be willing to withdraw? Is it possible that we can come up with some kind of an arrangement?’ At the end of the day, you know, whether an agreement will actually be forged, whether anything will come from the meeting, you know, it’s up in the air,” Gutierrez said. “And at the end of the day, the Vice President will still decide on the basis of what she feels is best insofar as 2022 is concerned. She has been very, very clear—the imperative for 2022 is to ensure a change in direction in the way national politics has been run in the last five years and she will do what she can in order to make that happen, if that means she will be the candidate, then she will do it,” he added.
Ex-DepEd chief calls out Duterte over ‘denial’ on status of PH education | Manila Bulletin – A former Education secretary criticized President Duterte’s last State of the Nation Address (SONA) for failing to mention the “education crisis” in the country and claiming that it was able to “provide quality and accessible education” despite the absence of face-to-face classes for more than a year. The “denial,” former Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro said, means that the country has no “countermeasures” to address the worsening education situation in the country. “Ito siguro yung pronouncement na malayo sa reality (This pronouncement is really far from the reality),” he added during a recent 1Sambayan media forum following Duterte’s SONA. Luistro, one of the convenors of opposition coalition 1Sambayan, was the Department of Education (DepEd) chief during the time of the late President Benigno Aquino III. He pointed out that the Philippines is “a perennial bottom-dweller” in several international assessments on education such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018, the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics in 2019. “Palaging kulelat nga ang Pilipinas. Hindi po natin isinisisi ang lahat ng iyan sa Duterte administration, pero hindi natin pwedeng sabihin na (The Philippines is always a bottom dweller. But we not blaming all that to the Duterte administration, but we also cannot say that) despite the non-face-to-face classes, we continue to provide quality education,” he said.
