Philippines tops COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia

ANKARA

The Philippines now suffers from the highest number of coronavirus cases in southeast asian, local media reported on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, the country reported 5,223 cases with 335 fatalities, while 295 patients have recovered, local broadcaster ABS-CBN reported.

The country was followed by Malaysia, where there are 4,987 COVID-19 cases, 82 deaths and 2,478 recoveries, while Indonesia has so far confirmed 4,839 cases, 459 deaths and 426 recoveries, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

Singapore has the fourth highest number of cases 3,252, along with 10 deaths and 611 recovered. In Thailand, there are 2,643 cases, 43 deaths and 1,497 recoveries, while Vietnam has 267 cases and 169 recovered with no deaths so far.

Authorities in the Philippines have allowed medical graduates in the country to help in the battle against the virus.

The country's Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has adopted a resolution on giving special authorization for the limited practice of Filipino medical graduates, the state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA) quoted the Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles as saying.

However, Nograles said special authorizations would only be issued "as a last resort" and would be effective for the duration of the public health emergency in the Philippines unless earlier withdrawn.

The country also relaxed the ban on the deployment of health workers abroad.

"All medical and allied health care professionals with perfected and signed overseas employment contracts as of March 8, 2020, shall be allowed for deployment abroad," Nograles said.

1.5 million workers displaced

Roughly 1.5 million Philippine workers have now been displaced in the country due to the ongoing enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), with the majority being in the manufacturing, hotel, restaurant and tourism-related sectors.

According to the PNA, as of Monday, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported that the number of displaced workers had reached 1,428,841.

The numbers "keep getting bigger by the day," PNA quoted Silvestre Bello, Secretary of DOLE, as saying. He added that this figure excluded informal sector workers which were in the hundreds of thousands and also needed financial assistance.

Earlier the country's labor groups accused labor department of "underreporting" the number of workers affected by the public health emergency.

Global pandemic

Since the virus emerged last December in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it has spread to at least 185 countries and regions.

There are nearly 1.98 million confirmed infections globally with over 126,800 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

More than 494,300 have recovered.

* Writing by Islamuddin Sajid