MANILA: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has extended a strict lockdown in the capital region and adjacent provinces by at least one week to try to contain a renewed surge in coronavirus infections, his spokesman said on Saturday.
The Philippines, which has the second-highest COVID-19 cases and deaths in Southeast Asia, reported 12,576 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, putting further strain on the health care system.
Restrictions, which include a ban on non-essential movement, mass gatherings and dining in restaurants, will remain for at least another week, Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said in a televised announcement. The measures had been set to end on April 4.
“This will go with intensified prevention, detection, isolation, tracing and rehabilitation that we will monitor on a daily basis,” Roque said.
Active cases in the country have hit a record 165,715, 96 percent of which were mild, health ministry data showed.
But intensive care capacity in the capital region’s hospitals have reached a critical level, with 80 percent of beds utilized and many hospitals being forced to turn away patients.
The congested capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities home to at least 13 million people, accounts for two-fifths of the country’s 784,043 confirmed cases and a third of the total 13,423 deaths. A University of the Philippines research team on Saturday called for a speedy construction of isolation facilities to prevent infections spreading through households.
Extended coronavirus curbs will continue to hurt the Philippines’ economy, which posted a record 9.5 percent slump last year.
The Philippines has so far inoculated nearly 739,000 people. This is just 1 percent of its target of vaccinating 70 million of its 108 million population to achieve herd immunity and safely reopen the economy.
Philippines’ Duterte extends coronavirus curbs in capital, nearby provinces
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Philippines’ Duterte extends coronavirus curbs in capital, nearby provinces
TikTok finalizes deal to form new American entity
TikTok has finalized a deal to create a new American entity, avoiding the looming threat of a ban in the United States that has been in discussion for years.
The social video platform company signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form the new TikTok US joint venture. The new version will operate under “defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for US users,” the company said in a statement Thursday. American TikTok users can continue using the same app.
Adam Presser, who previously worked as TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, will lead the new venture as its CEO. He will work alongside a seven-member, majority-American board of directors that includes TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew.
The deal marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States. After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the US if it did not find a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For a several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration sought an agreement for the sale of the company.
In addition to an emphasis on data protection, with US user data being stored locally in a system run by Oracle, the joint venture will also focus on TikTok’s algorithm. The content recommendation formula, which feeds users specific videos tailored to their preferences and interests, will be retrained, tested and updated on US user data, the company said in its announcement.
Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX are the three managing investors, who each hold a 15 percent share. Other investors include the investment firm of Michael Dell, the billionaire founder of Dell Technologies. ByteDance retains 19.9 percent of the joint venture.
