MANILA, Philippines — Around 700,000 face masks, which will be distributed to frontline workers facing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, were turned over to the Philippine National Police (PNP) Tuesday afternoon.
The masks were donated by Senator Manny Pacquiao together with HMR, KP Trading and C-So Funding.
Videos and photos provided by Pacquiao’s office showed boxes of face masks from Korea being loaded to vehicles inside Camp Crame in Quezon City.
According to Jayke Joson, Pacquiao’s special assistant, the masks will be distributed to personnel of the PNP, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and to some media workers.
The masks were turned over in a ceremony at Camp Crame attended by PNP chief Archie Gamboa, MMDA chairman Danilo Lim, and Pacquiao, according to Joson.
Earlier, Pacquiao announced via Instagram that he and Chinese billionaire Jack Ma have pledged to donate 50,000 test kits to the country through their respective foundations.
On Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire island of Luzon under an “enhanced community quarantine” as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to rise in the country.
The Department of Health (DOH) has so far recorded 142 COVID-19 cases in the country.
Of this number, 12 have died while three patients have recovered from the disease.
COVID-19, now considered by the World Health Organization as a pandemic, has infected more than 160,000 people – killed 6,000 – in over 140 different countries and territories, including China where the virus originated.