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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has recorded a televised address on the coronavirus outbreak, Buckingham Palace said Friday.

      MANILA, Philippines -- After recommending earlier to the Executive Department the grant of one-time "Bayanihan" financial assistance to cities and municipalities, Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go reiterated its importance to help local government units respond to the needs of their constituents while the country is addressing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) health emergency and the socioeconomic impact that comes with it. "Ang gobyernong lokal ang humaharap mismo sa araw-araw na problema ng kanilang mga nasasakupan. Sila ang unang nilalapitan ng mga tao. Tulungan natin silang mabigyan ng dagdag na kapasidad para rumesponde sa pangangailangan ...

Keep on reading: Bong Go urges quick provision of one-time ‘Bayanihan’ financial aid to LGUs

CEBU CITY- At least 96 individuals in Cebu and other parts of Central Visayas tested negative for the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 on Friday. The tests were conducted by the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), one of the sub-national laboratories accredited to conduct COVID tests. From 14,456, the number of persons under monitoring (PUM) in Cebu also decreased by about a half, said Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia. As of April 3, there are a total of 7,743 PUMs left in Cebu. Garcia said there were also 2,100 persons in Cebu who finished their 14-day quarantine on Friday. On the other hand, two individuals with influenza-like illness were confined at the hospital wh...

Keep on reading: COVID-19 PH: 96 tested negative in Cebu, other parts of Central Visayas

SAN ANTONIO, Zambales - A 62-year-old Singaporean has tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), making him the fourth case in the province, authorities here said.   The man, who is a pastor based in San Marcelino town, had traveled to Singapore and Japan before arriving in the country on March 14, according to San Marcelino Mayor Elvis Soria.   Twelve days later, the man experienced symptoms of COVID-19, such as fever, sore throat and mild cough.   He was monitored by local health officials who then took his swab samples for testing on March 31. The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine released the test result on Friday afternoon, which ...

Keep on reading: Singaporean pastor is 4th COVID-19 case in Zambales

GUINOBATAN, Albay---Bicol's fifth coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient who lives in Naga City tested negative in her second polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, the Department of Health Bicol said Friday. PH2166's PCR test showed that the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA was not detected in the samples taken from her. Naga City Mayor Nelson Legacion said that her 57-year-old grandmother, who owns the house where the patient lives, also tested negative for COVID-19. This means that Naga City is free of COVID-19. Legacion said in an online conference early Friday that the total lockdown that was put in place over Sister Therese Subdivision in Concepcion Pequea village would be lift...

Keep on reading: Naga City patient recovers from COVID-19; 57-yr-old grandma tests negative

WASHINGTON --- The Trump administration is formalizing new guidance to recommend that many Americans wear face coverings in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus as the president defends his response to the crisis. "Because of some recent information that the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak as opposed to coughing and sneezing -- the better part of valor is that when you're out, when you can't maintain that 6-foot distance, to wear some sort of facial covering," the top U.S. infectious disease official said Friday on "Fox & Friends." But Dr. Anthony Fauci also made clear that the aim is not to "take away from the availability of masks that ...

Keep on reading: White House moves toward promoting face masks to fight COVID-19

DAGUPAN CITY - Four people have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Pangasinan on Friday, raising to 27 the number of confirmed cases in the province. Two of the cases, 58-year-old and 73-year-old women, are from Lingayen, according to the Lingayen information office. The elderly women were both exposed to the town's first COVID-19 patient who died on March 25. The two new cases manifested symptoms of the disease on March 26 and had themselves tested on March 31. The other patient, a 49-year-old man from Sto. Tomas town who had a travel history to Metro Manila started to feel the symptoms on March 18. He was confined at the Region I Medical Center (R1MC)...

Keep on reading: With 4 new patients, Pangasinan COVID-19 cases now at 27

LEGAZPI CITY - Records show that no new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) positive cases were recorded in the Bicol region on Friday while eight of the 11 people earlier tested positive for the viral disease have recovered, Department of Health (DOH) in Bicol health surveillance unit, said. The DOH tracker report said of the 11 patients attended to in two designated quarantine hospitals in Bicol, six have shown no more signs and symptoms while two were tested negative for the virus and the rest were in stable condition. Among those that recovered with no more signs or symptoms were six patients from Albay and three from Camarines Sur. Those who tested negative of the disease were...

Keep on reading: Bicol records no new COVID-19 case; 8 of confirmed cases have recovered

The American economy lost more jobs than it gained for the first time in a decade.

MANILA, Philippines --- Wearing of face masks appears to have contributed to slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus disease in certain countries. Citing a study from the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Teodoro Herbosa of the University of the Philippines Diliman said wearing face masks in public helped other nations to flatten the curve of the virus' transmission. This is why, he said, they were recommending to the task force that there should be a policy in wearing of face masks as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea which imposed guidelines on wearing face masks, have somehow stopped the spread of the virus, Herbosa said in a press briefing...

Keep on reading: Expert: Face mask use might have helped other countries deter COVID-19 spread

In the midst of a global pandemic, we see a surge in something that gives us hope: Kindness is trending.

by Aurlie MAYEMBO / Olga NEDBAEVA / Fiachra GIBBONS The coronavirus has shaken the world like nothing else. But beyond the terrible toll of death, economic devastation, and fear, the virus is likely to leave another lasting mark. It is going to make us all fatter. "I don't know if we are going to come out of this experience stronger, but we will have gotten fatter," warned nutritionist Beatrice de Reynal, who said that was only one thing to do -- eat less. "It is going to happen to us all, even if we try to exercise," said the similarly fatalistic Julian Mercier, a French sports, health and cooking coach. With more than a quarter of humanity shut up at home or under lockdown...

Keep on reading: Cook more and eat less: Tips on your quarantine diet

LONDON --- Prince Charles on Friday remotely opened the new Nightingale Hospital at London's main exhibition and conference center, a temporary facility that will soon be able to treat 4,000 people who have contracted COVID-19. Charles said he was "enormously touched" to be asked to open the temporary facility at the ExCel center in east London and paid tribute to everyone, including military personnel, involved in its "spectacular and almost unbelievable" nine-day construction. "An example, if ever one was needed, of how the impossible could be made possible and how we can achieve the unthinkable through human will and ingenuity," he said via video link from his Scottish home ...

Keep on reading: Prince Charles opens fast-tracked London hospital

Incredibly rare World War II footage of British spy staff shot at a site connected to the famous codebreaking facility Bletchley Park has been discovered and published online.

Journalist Alice Stockton-Rossini hosted a 90th birthday for her mother last month in New Jersey. At the time, the radio host said, she had no idea she'd been infected with coronavirus while covering an outbreak in New Rochelle, New York.

  MANILA, Philippines --- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday that it has approved the test kits developed by the University of the Philippines-National Institute ofHealth (UP-NIH). "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved the Real-Time PCR for the detection of COVID-19 manufactured by the Manila HealthTek, Inc. for commercial use," FDA said in an advisory signed by Director General Rolando Enrique Domingo. "This is the first locally made PCR based COVID-19 test kit approved by the FDA which was developed in collaboration with the University of the Philippines-National institute of Health (UP-NIH), funded by the Department of Scie...

Keep on reading: BREAKING: FDA approves UP-developed COVID-19 test kits for commercial use

WUHAN, China --- Sidewalk vendors wearing face masks and gloves sold pork, tomatoes, carrots, and other vegetables to shoppers Friday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began, as workers prepared for a national memorial this weekend for health workers and others who died in the outbreak. Authorities were easing controls that kept Wuhan's 11 million people at home for two months, but many shops are still closed. Shoppers and sellers in the Minyi neighborhood on the city's southwest side had to do their business over high yellow barriers, as access to the community is still controlled. "I don't feel safe going to a supermarket," said Zhan Zhongwu, who wore two lay...

Keep on reading: Vendors return in Wuhan as China prepares virus memorial

LEGAZPI CITY - Despite the strict enforcement of the enhanced community quarantine in Albay province, an alleged notorious illegal drug pusher was caught selling suspected "shabu" (crystal meth) in a drug sting on Friday afternoon in Polangui town in Albay province, a police report said. Arrested was Richard Marabe, 27, resident of Barangay (village) Alnay and considered by police as a high-value target drug peddler. The report said the suspect was selling a sachet of shabu to an undercover agent in Barangay Alnay at around 4:05 p.m. Police operatives recovered from the suspect 14 sachets of shabu....

Keep on reading: Alleged drug pusher nabbed in Albay buy-bust

DUMAGUETE CITY---Persons exhibiting influenza-like illness, which the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention defined as those with fever of at least 38-degree Celsius, sore throat or cough, have been crossing over from Badian, a town in southern Cebu province, into Negros Oriental.   The migration is worsening overcrowding in hospitals here, according to officials.   Dr. Liland Zoila Bustamante-Estacion, assistant Negros Oriental health officer, told members of the provincial board on Friday (April 3) that she learned about the migration of sick people from Badian while checking why there was a sudden increase in the number of PUI and PUM in local hospitals. ...

Keep on reading: COVID-19 fears: Negros Oriental doctor raises alarm over migration of sick people from Cebu town