PH preparing for the ‘worst’ over novel coronavirus outbreak

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday the government is already “preparing for the worst” amid the novel coronavirus scare.

Since it is a mysterious disease, the President said limiting the entry of people is what the government is preparing for by gearing up all ports.

“We are preparing in all ports of entry. We have deployed almost all [including] regional and national port of entries… There is no vaccine and this is a mysterious disease and we are just preparing maybe for the worst,” Duterte said in an ambush interview.

Duterte said the front liners to address this are the Bureau of Immigration (BI), the Department of Health (DOH) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

“Frontliners are one immigration, second is health, third is customs on things that could be contaminated. What we can do is to limit people entering maybe the ports,” Duterte said.

Despite this, Duterte earlier said that there is no need yet to suspend all flights between China and the Philippines.

The death toll caused by the novel coronavirus has reached over 130 while nearly 6,000 individuals have been infected.

The Philippines remains free from novel-coronavirus, but the DOH said it is monitoring 23 persons suspected of carrying the deadly virus.