UP Diliman to use online classes amid coronavirus scare

MANILA, Philippines — The University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman and UP Integrated School will start to use online classes on Monday (March 16) to prevent the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease.

“This has been decided on after the meeting by the Office of the Chancellor Executive Staff and members of the UPD COVID-19 Task Force today, March 12, 2020,” read the statement on UP Diliman’s official Facebook page.

The university also said it would shift to the minimal workforce in its offices starting Monday.

The Philippines has 52 cases of the coronavirus disease which include two fatalities.

The fatal disease was caused by the novel coronavirus, which first emerged from Wuhan City of Hubei province in China.

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2.

Quarantines and avoiding or restricting public interactions has been a primary method of trying to prevent the spread of the virus.

The illness causes mild to moderate symptoms in most people but can be severe in the elderly and people with other health problems.

President Duterte, who skipped work due to illness a number of times last year, postponed a trip to Boracay island on Thursday due to concerns over COVID-19, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said. He had planned to travel to the famed beach resort to promote domestic tourism amid a slump in arrivals of foreign tourists because of the pandemic.

Leaders warn viral pandemic will worsen

People around the world became increasingly closed off from one another Thursday as sweeping travel bans accelerated, walling regions apart as a viral pandemic unfolds and financial markets plunge.

It was an outbreak moving, at once, both glacially and explosively, with a virus first detected three months ago in China creeping across borders and producing eruptive outbreaks that have crippled areas.

Even for a crisis that has brought no shortage of headlines, dizzying developments were flashing across screens: An official designation of “pandemic” from the World Health Organization, a dramatic halt to much travel between the United States and 26 European countries, and infections among beloved Hollywood stars, sports luminaries and political leaders. All of it came against a backdrop of plunging world economies that left not only Wall Street investors but people from all walks of life hurting.