Philippines: 19% of COVID-19 cases among medical staff

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Health workers in the Philippines are bearing the brunt of coronavirus with 19% of the total infections in the country.

As of Wednesday, 1,552 health workers contracted the virus, daily Phil Star reported quoting health authorities.

Globally, over 35,000 health workers have been infected with COVID-19, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

Meanwhile, the tally of cases in the archipelago nation surpassed 8,000 on Wednesday after 254 new cases were reported, the Health Ministry said.

Health authorities have conducted nearly 99,000 coronavirus tests.

The death toll has risen to 558, while 1,023 have recovered from the illness.

President Rodrigo Duterte has barred health workers from leaving the country and imposed strict lockdown measures.

- Singapore's COVID-19 tally crosses 15,000

In Singapore, which has emerged as Asia’s new hotspot of coronavirus, new cases among foreign workers continued to come to the fore.

According to the Health Ministry, 690 more cases were reported Wednesday raising the tally to 15,641.

“The vast majority of whom are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories,” the ministry said in a statement.

Some 12,694 of the 323,000 foreign workers living in dormitories have tested positive for the virus.

Singapore has conducted over 121,000 tests to determine the infected persons.

Meanwhile, the city-state’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said a 50-year-old man violated quarantine orders after his return from Indonesia.

He will be charged in court on Thursday for breaching stay-at-home orders, todayonline.com reported.

Ong Chong Kiat arrived in Singapore on March 24 and was asked to stay in quarantine -- an anti-COVID-19 measure -- but left his house twice.

Ong could be jailed for six months or fined or both.