{"id":251672,"date":"2020-04-08T23:01:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T03:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=251672"},"modified":"2020-04-09T21:22:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T01:22:10","slug":"duterte-urges-covid-19-survivors-to-donate-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/08\/duterte-urges-covid-19-survivors-to-donate-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte urges Covid-19 survivors to donate blood"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Duterte made this call praising the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) for considering the use of antibodies found in the blood of Covid-19 survivors to treat patients who were severely ill. (Pexels photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has urged individuals who have recovered from the 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to donate blood following studies that show that antibodies may help improve the condition of severely-infected patients.<\/p>\n

Duterte made this call praising the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) for considering the use of antibodies found in the blood of Covid-19 survivors to treat patients who were severely ill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng pag-asa natin<\/em>\u00a0is — including UP,\u00a0itong atin ipagmalaki rin natin ang mga doktor natin. Iyang mga<\/em>\u00a0bright.\u00a0\u2018Yung na — gumaling na, nagkaroon na \u2018yan sila ng<\/em>\u00a0antibodies (Our hope is\u2026including UP, we take pride in our doctors. They\u2019re bright. They found out that those who have recovered from Covid-19 have antibodies),\u201d he said in a meeting with select members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) early Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

UP-PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario earlier appealed for blood donations from Covid-19 survivors since antibodies found in their blood serve as a protection from the disease.<\/p>\n

Duterte said Covid-19 survivors would be doing the country a huge favor by donating their blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng mga taga<\/em>-UP they are (The experts from UP) — they are trying to figure out\u00a0na \u2018yung nakalabas na sa — lahat na nagmamag — mag mabuting-loob kayo.<\/em>\u00a0And I think kung ako (those that have been released from the hospitals, do us a kind favor. If it were me), I should volunteer. That is the way of thanking God that you have survived,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said donating blood would help save lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cMagpakuha kayo kasi \u2018yun ang dugo ninyo<\/em>\u00a0—\u00a0\u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0plasma\u00a0ninyo \u2018yun ang i<\/em>-inject\u00a0doon sa mga tinamaan<\/em>\u00a0(Get your blood drawn\u2014because the plasma can be injected to those infected),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In an interview with GMA News, del Rosario said the use of antibodies is still at the \u201cexperimental stage\u201d and should not be considered standard care.<\/p>\n

Antibodies, which protect the body from diseases, are protein found in the blood that is produced in response to foreign substances such as bacteria or viruses invading the body, according to the US-based Center for Disease Control.<\/p>\n

Wear masks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte also reminded the public anew to wear face masks to minimize the risk of catching or spreading Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Throughout the IATF meeting, Duterte was seen wearing a face mask himself despite his obvious discomfort and annoyance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMag-maskara tayo. Kung wala pang<\/em>\u00a0vaccine\u00a0mga<\/em>\u00a0Christmas time,\u00a0sabay na tayo sa mga<\/em>\u00a0hold-upper (Let\u2019s all wear masks. If there is no vaccine until Christmas time, we could all be hold-uppers),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte has been very vocal about his dislike for face masks on numerous occasions, saying he had trouble breathing in them and took last night\u2019s meeting as another chance to say so.<\/p>\n

\u201cHirap akong magsalita. Ang sikip kasi<\/em>\u00a0(I have a hard time talking. It\u2019s too tight),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite admitting that he would rather not wear one, he said he did it to comply with the IATF\u2019s guidelines.<\/p>\n

The IATF members present during the meeting were also wearing face masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cKasi lahat sila nakamaskara. Mahiya naman ako kasi ang<\/em>\u00a0order\u00a0ko huwag kayong lumabas ng walang maskara. Tapos makikita ninyo lahat sila, ako lang ang hindi<\/em>\u00a0(They\u2019re all wearing masks. I would be ashamed not to wear them because my order is don\u2019t leave home without masks. And you\u2019d see them, and I would be the only one not wearing one),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last week, Cabinet Secretary and IATF Spokesperson Karlo Nograles bared that the IATF has required the mandatory wearing of face masks or other protective equipment for residents in areas placed under Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine when leaving their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor areas placed under ECQ, the IATF hereby adopts the policy of mandatory wearing by all residents of face masks, earloop masks, indigenous, reusable or do-it-yourself masks, face shields, handkerchiefs, or such other protective equipment that can effectively lessen the transmission of Covid-19, whenever allowed to go out of their residences pursuant to existing guidelines issued by the national government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He urged local government units (LGUs) to issue necessary executive orders or ordinances to require the use of face mask and impose such penalties for offenders.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, health authorities reported a total of 3,870 Covid-19 cases, 182 deaths, and 96 recoveries in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has urged individuals who have recovered from the 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to donate blood following …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":250258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251673,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251672\/revisions\/251673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}