MANILA: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has lengthened coronavirus restrictions in the capital region and some provinces, his spokesperson said on Saturday, as the Southeast Asian nation logged a new record in daily COVID-19 infections.
The Philippines, which has among the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Asia, is battling a renewed surge in COVID-19 cases driven by community transmission of the more infectious Delta variant.
“We expect the number of cases will continue to increase in the coming days,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a public briefing.
The health ministry recorded 19,441 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, notching a record-high for the third time in the past nine days. Total confirmed cases have risen to more than 1.93 million, while deaths have reached 33,008, after 167 more fatalities were recorded.
Active cases, at 142,679, were at a four-month high, overwhelming hospitals and health care workers in coronavirus hotspots, health ministry data show.
“Improving vaccination coverage, shortening the duration of detection to isolation, and compliance of people to community health care standards would really help us stop the transmission in communities,” Vergeire said.
The government on Saturday extended the second-highest level of quarantine curbs in the capital region until Sept. 7. Although some businesses can operate at up to 50 percent on-site capacity, restaurant dine-in, personal care services and religious activities are still prohibited in the capital region, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.
The capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities that is home to more than 13 million people, is the country’s coronavirus epicenter, accounting for a third of the 1.91 million confirmed infections and a quarter of the 32,841 total deaths.
Nine provinces and six cities facing a surge in cases and high health care utilization were also placed under the second-tightest coronavirus curbs.
The government is pinning its hopes for an economic recovery on its inoculation program, which started in March.
The Philippines has so far secured a total of 194.89 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, enough to inoculate about 100.5 million Filipinos or more than 100 percent of the country’s adult population, the finance ministry said.
Nearly 49 million doses have been delivered, while another 42 million will arrive in a month, said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, adding that the government could inoculate everyone by January.
Philippines’ Duterte extends coronavirus curbs as cases hit new record high
https://arab.news/zjbxn
Philippines’ Duterte extends coronavirus curbs as cases hit new record high
- The Philippines is battling a renewed surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the more infectious Delta variant
- Second-highest level of quarantine curbs in the capital region extended until September 7
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
