The hardest-hit country in Southeast Asia has become a hotbed of new coronavirus outbreaks but a decline in daily new infections in several areas has raised hopes for a continued downtrend.
Duterte to Announce New Quarantine Classifications
Malacanang Palace on Thursday revealed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will announce new community quarantine classifications Monday.
The health department said new cases fell more than 4,000 over the past 24 hours.
The lockdown in Metro Manila will end Tuesday but the government is expected to roll out new guidelines to further curb daily new COVID-19 infections.
The palace earlier said it was "highly unlikely" the administration would retain the current lockdown in metropolitan areas and neighboring towns.
Duterte Expected to Get Russia Vaccine Next Year
Meanwhile, the palace said the president is expected to get Russia's COVID-19 vaccine shot by May 2021 at the earliest as the country prepares volunteers for clinical trials.
Presidential representative Harry Roque said Duterte would be immunized if the Russia vaccine is proven to be safe and effective.
Earlier this week presidential security chief Col. Jesus Durante said Duterte would get the vaccine only if approved by the country's Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.
As of Thursday the Philippines had 147,526 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,426 deaths. It is the worst-affected country in Southeast Asia.
Local Transmissions Rise in Malaysia
In Malaysia the number of locally transmitted cases increased Thursday with 11 of 15 new cases over the past 24 hours being local transmissions.
Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said the four imported cases were Malaysia citizens. Three of the arrivals were from Indonesia, the second-worst affected country in the region, while one was from Yemen.
As of Thursday Malaysia had 9,129 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 125 deaths. Like Vietnam, Malaysia is considered to have successfully contained the virus in its early days.
Indonesia's Jakarta Still Hard Hit
Indonesia's Health Ministry on Thursday announced an additional 2,098 new confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the national infection number to 132,816.
The capital Jakarta reported 608 cases. It remains the worst-affected in Indonesia. There are concerns about the implementation of anticoronavirus measures in the city.
Thursday's total cases were largely accounted for by East Java with 341 infections followed by Central Java with 204 and North Sulawesi with 125 new cases.
Teachers Raise Alarms on School-Linked Clusters
The Federation of Indonesian Teachers Associations on Thursday warned reopening schools may lead to cluster infections.
Its secretary-general Heru Purnomo said "distance learning, be it offline or online, is safer than face-to-face lessons." Purnomo said the teachers' association had repeatedly raised concerns about reopening schools
Other countries in Asia have reported school-linked clusters following the easing of restrictions.
