Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian on Friday said a group of Filipino-Chinese businessmen will donate over  half a million face masks to the public following confirmation by the Department of Health of the first case of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCov).

Huang said the Philippine Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. agreed to his suggestion for the group to donate at least 600,000 masks.

“We believe China and the Philippines [have] come through thick and thin. We will continue to go hand in hand to overcome the difficulties and we are very confident to bring our people back on track [at] an early date,” Huang said in a media briefing.

The DOH announcement on the first 2019-nCoV case in the country has resulted spike in the demand for face masks. The World Health Organization has declared a global emergency with 10,000 reported cases in 18 countries.

The DOH earlier appealed to the public to stop hoarding face masks, warning that a shortage of supply will affect health workers and other people who need it.

“We ask the public to be very, very judicious in the use of these materials,” Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said.

Domingo said they are working with suppliers to deliver much-needed face masks to hospitals. DMS

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a travel ban of Chinese nationals coming from Hubei province and other areas in China with cases of deadly novel coronavirus, Malacanang said on Friday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte reached a decision after Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III made a recommendation.

The first case of nCoV in the country raises “serious concern” by the government on the health and safety of the Filipinos, he said.

With this, he said Duterte instructed the DOH to commence the protocols it has prepared for such eventuality to contain the disease and neutralize its spread and transmission.

“The President has issued a travel ban to Chinese nationals coming from the Hubei province of China where the nCoV originated, as well in other places in China where there is a spread of the disease,” he said in a statement.

The travel ban will “last until the threat is over,” he said, stressing that the safety of the Filipinos is foremost in the mind of the President.

“The DOH assures us that every measure is being undertaken to contain the spread of the dreadful virus as well as monitoring and placing in quarantine those showing of symptoms of having nCov,” he said.

The DOH confirmed Thursday the first case of nCoV involving a Chinese woman who traveled from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus in Hubei, to Hong Kong and then flew to Cebu, then to Dumaguete and finally landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Panelo said the Chinese woman is currently confined at government-owned San Lazaro Hospital in Manila.

Quoting Duque, he said that the patient is being treated and isolated.

“There is no way that she will transmit the disease to another person as the hospital personnel are protectively dressed and their mouths and noses covered with surgical masks plus their hands covered with globes,” he said. Celerina Monte/DMS