MANILA – The Malacañang said on Sunday that there are no plans yet of
evacuating Filipinos based in Wuhan City, China, which is the epicenter of the
2019 novel coronavirus outbreak.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a radio interview that the
government cannot force Filipinos in the area to come back to the Philippines,
given their employment.
“Wala
tayong narinig na mayroong ganong patakaran si Presidente,” Panelo
said. “‘Yung Filipino na nasa ibang bansa, they are working
there. If they feel that they are safe, hindi
mo mapapaalis ‘yun don, kasi
livelihood nila ‘yun.”
As of Sunday, 56 people have been confirmed
dead, while close to 2,000 have fallen ill across China due to the new
coronavirus strain.
“Siyempre,
‘yung lugar na pinagtratrabahuan nila, mayroon ding ginagawa ang mga
authority doon para hindi kumalat,”
Panelo said. “Ang payo natin doon eh
kung ano ‘yung mga precaution na
ibinibigay ng mga local authorities, gagawin
nila para hindi sila magkasakit.”
Department of Health (DOH) secretary Francisco
Duque, meanwhile, has called on the media to avoid the spread of false
information about the said coronavirus.
“I call upon the responsible media practitioners
in our midst that let’s not be used by unscrupulous groups whose agenda is to
propagate ‘info-demic’,” Duque said in a media briefing at the Palace on Monday.
“Info-demic means the spread of false or
baseless pieces of information. Let’s not be a party to such a propagation,
because, otherwise, this problem, this misinformation can be more viral than
the virus that we all are guarding against,” he added.
The coronavirus outbreak, which was first
identified in December, has caused alarm because it is still too early to know
how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads between people. And because it is
new, humans have not been able to build any immunity against it.
China has instituted an
“unprecedented” lockdown in some cities with millions of population
in an attempt to curb the spread of the illness. Meanwhile, there are still
zero cases of coronavirus in the country, Duque said./PN