Malacañang asks media help in spreading gov’t information on coronavirus

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Monday called on the Philippine media to help disseminate vital COVID-19 information to provide the public with appropriate and legitimate guidance in battling the contagion.

In a Palace press briefing, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo asked local media outlets across all platforms to publish statements made by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as well as health bulletins issued by the government in light of the coronavirus threat.

“We request and urge all media outlets to kindly publish all the statements made by Secretary Duque and all the bulletins issued by it so that our countrymen will know how to react on the present crisis,” Panelo said.

“All media outlets that means all television stations, radio stations, and newspapers,” he added.

Panelo made the appeal after President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency as COVID-19 cases in the country increased to 10 over the weekend.

Of the 10 confirmed cases, seven are currently admitted to different as two have recovered while one patient died. The fatality was a tourist from China’s city of Wuhan in Hubei province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The four new COVID-19 patients are separately admitted to the Makati Medical Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, The Medical City in Ortigas, and St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, DOH’s Duque earlier revealed.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, officials of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas have agreed to air the government’s COVID-19 infomercials and public service announcements both on radio and television.

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

Coronavirus is a family of viruses, which surfaces have a crown-like appearance. The viruses are named for the spikes on their surfaces.

KGA