President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo courtesy of Sen. Christopher Go)
Updated @ 10:57 p.m., April 19, 2020
MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte had a telephone conversation on Sunday with US President Donald Trump to discuss possible bilateral cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Duterte’s long-time aide and now Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go confirmed this on Sunday, saying that the call lasted for about 18 minutes.
Both countries, the Philippines and the US have encountered difficulties in curbing the number of COVID-19 cases. As of Sunday, the US had the most number of coronavirus infections, standing at 734,552 cases with over almost 34,000 deaths.
The Philippines meanwhile has one of the highest COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in Southeast Asia. As of this writing, the Department of Health (DOH) has recorded 6,259 patients — 409 of whom have died and 572 have recovered.
Worldwide, over 2.33 million individuals have been infected, while 155,689 have died from the disease and 599,692 have recovered from it.
/atm