DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 01 May) – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte asked residents to “pray for a miracle” in the fight to stop the coronavirus pandemic.
“Before we sleep at night, all of us, we need to pray for a miracle that the COVID-19 will go away,” Duterte said during her live interview over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR) 87.5 on Friday.
A church in Davao City announces the temporary suspension of masses. The suspension started on Sunday, 15 March 2020. Davao City under its community quarantine guidelines has discouraged the holding of religious activities where people can converge, to prevent COVID-19 infection. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
The mayor said she hopes the Philippines could recover from the unprecedented impact of the deadly disease, as the country continues to record more cases.
As of 4 p.m. Friday, the Department of Health reported a total of 8,772 cases in the country. Of the total, 1,084 patients have recovered and 579 have died due to the infection.
Meanwhile, Davao Region, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Mindanao, reported 135 confirmed cases as of Thursday. Of this number, 79 patients have recovered and five have died.
Duterte said she envisions restoring some semblance of normalcy in the city, with people learning to adjust despite the threat of COVID-19 so that other employees can return to work.
“Hopefully, we can bounce back very soon as a country, and we can learn to live with COVID-19, meaning the people can go back to work despite COVID-19. We just need to adjust, and make sure we have protection for ourselves,” she said.
The mayor also honored the medical frontliners and and other workers on Labor Day, and sympathized with those who have lost their jobs due to the outbreak, which has slowed down the economy.
“We thank them for their hard work and for their passion for their jobs because they contribute to nation-building and they contribute to keep everyone safe,” she said.
Duterte earlier said: “The only way that we can go back to our normal pre-COVID-19 lives is when there is a medicine and a vaccine.”
“We need to prepare for that and everybody needs to prepare for that because there is no vaccine, there is no medicine. The only thing we can do now is to keep the number of our infected low, and treat those who are positive, control the spread of infection, and look for those people who are asymptomatic,” she said.
“Since there is no medicine and vaccine, the virus is still out there. What we need to do now is to ensure our numbers remain low, and to determine immediately those who are infected,” she said. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
