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In the National Basketball Association bubble, the Heat were the favorites of the working class for a reason: they never took a second off. From opening to final buzzer of any given game, they could be relied on to scrap and scrape, to clamp and claw, to push and pounce. They played every possession as if it were the last, leaving nothing in the tank and understanding its significance in the grand scheme of things. They had a living, breathing culture to protect, to live by, to live up to, and darned if they were going to fail because of lack of effort. Which, in the final analysis, was why they always — always — exceeded themselves.

In retrospect, the Celtics should have known the Heat would be an extremely tough out. Their competition had two All-Stars who willingly played roles, and role players who confidently acted like All-Stars. They had superior talent, true, but they were up against a whole that routinely proved greater than the sum of its parts. And, really, having just survived a grueling semifinal-round series against the equally resolute Raptors, they should have learned their lesson. Said to be the best teacher, experience was instead ignored in their case through a combination of cockiness and hubris. And so they found themselves crashing out of the conference finals for the third time in four years.

Perhaps the Celtics simply had the misfortune of running into a bad matchup. To argue that the Heat were little more than that would, however, be tantamount to dabbling in delusion.  After all, the fifth seeds overwhelmed the Pacers and, even more tellingly, the league-leading Bucks before facing them. Yet, they had nary a sense of urgency, particularly with outcomes on the line; they snatched defeat from the throes of triumph in Games One and Two, and then, after an inspired Game Five seemed to give them the formula for success, promptly abandoned it with their season on the line in Game Six.

Depending on perspective, the Celtics hold a glass that is either half full or half empty. They have an outstanding front office, a topnotch coaching staff, and personnel boasting of complementary skill sets — all of which underscore their ascent as a matter of when and not if. At the same time, there is cause to contend that they’ve underachieved; they had grand opportunities to make hay while the sun shone, and with the shadow of LeBron James no longer looming over them, only to emerge empty-handed for the last two years. Now, they have a more mature Giannis Antetokounmpo — not to mention the rightly credentialed Raptors and Heat — to contend with.

If nothing else, the Celtics have youth on their side. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, their best players, have yet to peak, and, in time, the two will know the value of employing their strengths with a sense of urgency and purpose. The flipside, of course, is that they’ve already been through more than enough challenges to make good on their promise. They can’t keep on saying they’ll do better next time because, at some point, perhaps even in the near future, there will no longer be a next time.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

Some of Hong Kong’s poor finally feel at home in 290 sq. ft. modules

HONG KONG — When Lau Kai Fai, his wife, and teenage son moved into a new Hong Kong flat last month, he thought the 290 square feet (27 square meters) of space in his “module home” felt like “winning the lottery.”

Among the first Hong Kongers to move into such prefabricated dwellings, built as a transition for people awaiting public housing, Mr. Lau’s family more than tripled the space they had squeezed into. Now they sit together for meals, rather than eating in turns.

While tiny by the standards of many cities in rich countries, the new home represents a big step up—even if temporary—for Mr. Lau, 70, in one of the most crowded urban areas in the world.

“It feels like a home,” Mr. Lau said. “The previous flat was only a place to sleep.”

Mr. Lau is the beneficiary of Hong Kong’s latest initiative to ease a housing shortage, where more than 200,000 people living in subdivided flats are waiting an average 5.5 years to get public housing.

Transitional homes are built on idle land leased by the government or private developers for only a few years, although the prefab modules can be moved and reused.

The 2018 plan only scratches the surface of the needs of one of the world’s most unequal cities: more than 1 million of the 7.5 million people in this opulent financial hub live in poverty. As of June, 800 transitional homes had been built of 15,000 planned over the next three years.

But for the Mr. Lau family, the flat in a four-storey building in one of the oldest and poorest districts in central Kowloon is luxury.

HOMEWORK AT DESK, NOT BED
Their previous flat, one of many in Hong Kong dubbed “coffin homes,” had cost around HK$5,000 ($650) a month in rent. Now the family pays HK$3,000—25% of the income of the retired Mr. Lau’s wife, Tian Jiayu, the family breadwinner who works in a supermarket.

They finally have a place where their son does his homework at a desk rather than in bed.

The door to the white, container-shaped dwelling opens onto a bunk bed. A wardrobe separates the bed from the living room, where a rotating chair doubles for computer work and dining. Twelve steps from the entrance, at the end of the flat, stands the mini-kitchen with a refrigerator, stoves, and washer.

The move expanded the family’s floor space from 80 sq. ft. to 290 sq. ft. They now live in two-thirds the median area of a home in crowded Hong Kong, at 430 sq. ft.—itself half the size of the average London home.

In Tokyo, another packed Asian capital, the average home is 710 sq. ft., although some 1.4 million people live in spaces of 210 sq. ft. or less, according to government figures.

Ms. Tian is happiest about the upgrade to mini-kitchen from gas stove.

The land for Nam Cheong 2020, the city’s first module home project, was leased by developer Henderson Land for HK$1 a month. The project was built by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.

It was built from container-like blocks for only 40% of the cost of building a public rental home, said Anthony Wong, business director of the nonprofit.

Lack of land and money are challenges to building more transitional homes. NGOs say the government is not doing enough. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam is under pressure for housing solutions, including shoring up the transitional housing scheme.

“The problem is the government is acting like a middle man rather than taking the responsibility to develop it. They are relying on NGOs and developers to do that,” said Sze Lai Shan, community organizer at the Society for Community Organisation.

A spokesman for the Transport and Housing Bureau told Reuters the government launched a HK$5 billion funding scheme in June to support transitional housing projects by NGOs, which can come in many different arrangements and different ideas.

“We hope to … allow different community groups to use their creativity as much as possible to provide diversified transitional housing projects,” he said by e-mail, adding the government is facilitating short- and long-term “policies to increase housing supply, in order to address housing problem faced by low-income families.”

Mr. Lau’s Nam Cheong 2020 lifeline is two years.

“We hope we’ll get a public flat by then, if not there’s nothing we can do,” he said. “We’ll have to find a subdivided flat again.” — Clare Jim and Joyce Zhou/Reuters

Surprise pregnancies in Philippines surge amid virus curbs

Unintended pregnancies in the Philippines could spike by almost half to 2.6 million if movement restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic remain until yearend, the United Nations Population Fund said.

Quarantine measures are also causing 60 additional maternal deaths a month, as restrictions prevent two million more women to access family planning needs, the agency said, citing a study by the University of the Philippines Population Institute.

“These numbers are an epidemic in itself,” Aimee Santos, the UN agency’s gender program officer in the Philippines, said at a Senate hearing Tuesday.

The Philippines, which has the second-highest population in Southeast Asia at 108.4 million, kept its capital under loose restrictions through October. It has the region’s worst virus outbreak, with over 307,000 infections as of Monday.

“These issues of women and children have largely remained invisible during the pandemic. It’s time to put them front and center,” said Senator Risa N. Hontiveros-Baraquel, head of the chamber’s committee on women. She backed calls for more female officials in the nation’s task force against the coronavirus outbreak. — Andreo Calonzo/Bloomberg

Why the coronavirus death rate still eludes scientists

Scientists have said the total number of infections is exponentially higher than the current number of confirmed cases, now at 33 million globally. Many experts believe the coronavirus likely kills 0.5% to 1% of people infected, making it a very dangerous virus globally until a vaccine is identified. Image via iSO-FORM / CC BY 4.0

Global deaths from COVID-19 have reached 1 million, but experts are still struggling to figure out a crucial metric in the pandemic: the fatality rate—the percentage of people infected with the pathogen who die.

Here is a look at issues surrounding better understanding the COVID-19 death rate.

How is a death rate calculated?

A true mortality rate would compare deaths against the total number of infections, a denominator that remains unknown because the full scope of asymptomatic cases is difficult to measure. Many people who become infected simply do not experience symptoms.

Scientists have said the total number of infections is exponentially higher than the current number of confirmed cases, now at 33 million globally. Many experts believe the coronavirus likely kills 0.5% to 1% of people infected, making it a very dangerous virus globally until a vaccine is identified.

Researchers have begun to break down that risk by age group, as evidence mounts that younger people and children are far less likely to experience severe disease.

“The death rate for people below age 20 is probably one in 10,000. Over the age of 85 it is around one in 6,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.

What is a ‘case fatality rate’?

There has been an apparent decline in death rates when measured against the number of new infections confirmed by coronavirus testing. In places like the United States, that “case fatality rate” has fallen dramatically from 6.6% in April to just over 2% in August, according to Reuters statistics.

But experts said that the decline has largely been driven by more widespread testing compared with the early days of the pandemic, detecting more people who have mild illness or no symptoms. Improvements in treating the severely ill and protecting some of the highest-risk groups, are also credited with improving survival.

“We are much more aware of potential complications and how to recognize and treat them,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security in Baltimore. “If you are a patient who gets COVID-19 in 2020, you would much rather get it now than in March.”

What does that mean for individuals, and governments?

That highlights the need for continued vigilance, as some countries begin to experience a second wave of infections.

For example, researchers in France estimate that country’s case fatality rate fell by 46% by the end of July compared with the end of May, driven by an increase in testing, improved medical care and a greater proportion of infections occurring in younger people, who are less likely to experience severe disease.

“Now, we are seeing a fresh rise in hospitalizations and ICU (intensive care unit) registrations, which means this discrepancy is about to end,” said Mircea Sofonea, a researcher with Montpellier University in France. “We will have to understand why.” — Deena Beasley/Reuters

Poorer countries to get 120 million $5 coronavirus tests, WHO says

According to the World Health Organization, 120 million highly portable and easy-to-use rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests available over a period of six months.

GENEVA/LONDON — Some 120 million rapid diagnostic tests for coronavirus will be made available to low- and middle-income countries at a maximum of $5 each, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

The wider availability of quick, reliable, and inexpensive testing will help 133 countries to track infections and contain the spread, closing the gap with wealthy ones, it said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor had agreed with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “make 120 million of these new, highly portable and easy-to-use rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests available over a period of six months.”

He told a news conference in Geneva the tests were currently priced at a maximum of $5 each but were expected to become cheaper.

“This will enable the expansion of testing, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that do not have laboratory facilities or enough trained health workers to carry out tests,” Mr. Tedros said.

“This is a vital addition to the testing capacity and especially important in areas of high transmission.”

Catharina Boehme, chief executive officer of the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), a Geneva-based non-profit organization in the project, said the deal was a “major milestone” as it was urgent to increase testing in poorer countries.

“It is our first line of defense, critical for countries to track, trace and isolate to stop the spread of the virus and to ensure that we are not flying blind,” she said.

“We now have two high-quality tests which are the first in a series that are being developed and assessed by WHO for emergency use listing,” she said.

The antigen tests—which don’t require a laboratory—provide reliable results in just 15 minutes rather than hours or days and will help expand testing, Ms. Boehme said, adding: “The tests are as simple to use as pregnancy tests.”

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria—another Geneva-based group—was providing an initial $50 million to the procurement fund and the first orders were expected to be placed this week, she said.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, said that more tests were undergoing evaluation and would come online.

They would be particularly useful in remote settings and to investigate clusters quickly and bring them under control and in areas with widespread community transmission.

“This will be really, really helpful for communities and countries to be able to know where is the virus and who is infected with the virus,” she said. — Emma Farge and Kate Kelland/Reuters

OMF bags four Stevies for its COVID initiatives

The corporate social responsibility arm of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), One Meralco Foundation (OMF), was honored in the 17th Annual International Business Awards — also known as the Stevie Awards — for four of its COVID response efforts.

“Help from Home,” an internal campaign that provided opportunities for Meralco employees to contribute to the foundation’s COVID-19 initiatives while working from home, won bronze in the most valuable corporate response category.

Hundreds of families in Mauban, Quezon receive care packages from OMF and the Meralco Employees’ Fund for Charity, Inc. (MEFCI), an organization of Meralco employees.

“A heartfelt employee social responsibility initiative directly aligned to the company’s values. This campaign will no doubt be remembered by all those who were able to gain assistance from it,” noted a juror.

The campaign raised PHP 2,806,902 allowing OMF to provide grocery gift certificates to more than 1,000 low-income families in Metro Manila during the early days of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period. It also funded the sustained relief operations of OMF thereafter.

A Meralco employee hands over a care package from One Meralco Foundation in one of its relief operations in Metro Manila.

A partnership initiative with Meralco’s electric vehicle subsidiary, eSakay, also won bronze in the same category. It provided free shuttle service to thousands of medical frontliners and essential workers at a time when public transport was put on hold in an effort to curb the community transmission of the novel coronavirus. 

The service carried 76,364 frontliners in Pasig City, Makati City, and along special routes designated by the DOTr. It also provided income to 35 eSakay drivers and support personnel.

An eSakay electric vehicle shuttles frontliners and essential workers within Metro Manila during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). Because mass transport was suspended during the period, medical workers and employees of vital establishments that were allowed to operate found it challenging to report to work. OMF and eSakay’s free service helped address this problem.

“This is one good corporate response in a country with a lot of commuting public. Keep up the good work helping the frontliners,” wrote one juror.

Meanwhile, “From Farmers to Frontliners,” a campaign that provided nutritious vegetables to frontliners and the homeless, while invigorating the livelihood of vegetable farmers, won bronze in the most valuable non-profit response category. 

Vegetables donated by OMF were served to frontline workers at the Las Piñas General Hospital.

OMF procured six tons of produce from farmers in Kabayan, Benguet province, and served these to 9,403 healthcare workers, 5,695 LGU frontliners, and 3,365 marginalized families. Bayad Center, Meralco’s payment solutions subsidiary, funded the program.

Jurors in the category described it as “a very smart project” and “a proud achievement.”

In the past six months, OMF has worked with 31 local government units in the Meralco franchise area and dozens of national agencies to provide care packages to 7,891 families in marginalized communities adversely affected by the economic effects of the pandemic. This strategic partnership won for the foundation its fourth bronze Stevie also in the most valuable non-profit response category.

A housewife receives a PhP1,000 grocery gift check from Caritas Manila’s “Project Damayan,” an initiative of the Catholic Church-affiliated charitable institution to help marginalized families cope with the health crisis. In support of this cause, One Meralco Foundation launched a fundraising campaign within Meralco called “Help from Home.” The campaign allowed employees of Meralco and its subsidiaries to contribute while working in the safety of their homes. It raised a total of PhP2.80 million.

“A very admirable effort to support the front-line medical staff and those in need in these troubled times. [Meralco’s] service to the community is heart-warming and it is exemplary effort for other organizations to follow,” shared a juror in the category.

The programs were honored in the COVID19 Response Categories, which were specially offered this year to recognize the contributions of individuals and institutions to the global fight against the novel coronavirus.

The Stevie Awards attracted more than 3,800 nominations from organizations of all types in 63 nations this year.

Global coronavirus deaths pass ‘agonizing milestone’ of 1 million

The global death toll from COVID-19 rose past 1 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, a bleak milestone in a pandemic that has devastated the global economy, overloaded health systems, and changed the way people live.

The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus this year is now double the number of people who die annually from malaria—and the death rate has increased in recent weeks as infections surge in several countries.

“Our world has reached an agonizing milestone,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

“It’s a mind-numbing figure. Yet we must never lose sight of each and every individual life. They were fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, friends, and colleagues.”

It took just three months for COVID-19 deaths to double from half a million, an accelerating rate of fatalities since the first death was recorded in China in early January.

More than 5,400 people are dying around the world every 24 hours, according to Reuters calculations based on September averages, overwhelming funeral businesses, and cemeteries.

That equates to about 226 people an hour, or one person every 16 seconds. In the time it takes to watch a 90-minute soccer match, 340 people die on average.

INFECTIONS RISING

Experts remain concerned that the official figures for deaths and cases globally significantly under-represent the real tally because of inadequate testing and recording and the possibility of concealment by some countries.

The response to the pandemic has pitted proponents of health measures like lockdowns against those intent on sustaining politically sensitive economic growth, with approaches differing from country to country.

The United States, Brazil, and India, which together account for nearly 45% of all COVID-19 deaths globally, have all lifted social distancing measures in recent weeks.

“The American people should anticipate that cases will rise in the days ahead,” US Vice-President Mike Pence warned on Monday.

India, meanwhile, has recorded the highest daily growth in infections in the world, with an average of 87,500 new cases a day since the beginning of September.

On current trends, India will overtake the United States as the country with the most confirmed cases by the end of the year, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government pushes ahead with easing lockdown measures in a bid to support a struggling economy.

Despite the surge in cases, India’s death toll of about 95,500, and pace of growth of fatalities, remain below those of the United States, Britain, and Brazil.

In Europe, which accounts for nearly 25% of deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a worrying spread in western Europe just weeks away from the winter flu season.

The WHO has also warned the pandemic still needs major control interventions amid rising cases in Latin America, where many countries have started to resume normal life.

Much of Asia, the first region affected by the pandemic, is experiencing a relative lull after emerging from a second wave.

BURIAL STRAIN

The high number of deaths has led to changes in burial rites around the world, with morgues and funeral businesses overwhelmed and loved ones often barred from bidding farewell in person.

In Israel, the custom of washing the bodies of Muslim deceased is not permitted, and instead of being shrouded in cloth, they must be wrapped in a plastic body bag. The Jewish tradition of Shiva where people go to the home of mourning relatives for seven days has also been disrupted.

In Italy, Catholics have been buried without funerals or a blessing from a priest, while in Iraq former militiamen dropped their guns to dig graves at a specially created cemetery and learned how to conduct both Christian and Muslim burials.

In some parts of Indonesia, bereaved families have barged into hospitals to claim bodies, fearing their relatives might not be given a proper burial.

An indigenous group in the Ecuadorean Amazon took two police officers and a state official hostage, demanding authorities return the body of a community leader for a traditional burial.

The United States, Indonesia, Bolivia, South Africa, and Yemen have all had to locate new burial sites as cemeteries fill up. — Jane Wardell/Reuters

Pandemic to keep Asia’s growth at lowest since 1967, warns World Bank

TOKYO — The coronavirus pandemic is expected to lead to the slowest growth in more than 50 years in East Asia and the Pacific as well as China, while up to 38 million people are set to be pushed back into poverty, the World Bank said in an economic update on Monday.

The bank said the region this year is projected to grow by only 0.9%, the lowest rate since 1967.

Growth in China was expected to come in at 2% this year, boosted by government spending, strong exports and a low rate of new coronavirus infections since March, but held back by slow domestic consumption.

The rest of the East Asia and Pacific region was projected to see a 3.5% contraction, the World Bank said.

The pandemic and efforts to contain its spread led to a “significant curtailment” of economic activity, the report said.

“These domestic difficulties were compounded by the pandemic-induced global recession, which hit EAP (East Asia and Pacific) economies that rely on trade and tourism hard,” it said.

Countries in the region may need to pursue fiscal reform to mobilize revenue in response to the economic and financial impact from the pandemic, while social protection programs can help support workers’ integration back into the economy, the Washington, DC-based bank said.

“Countries with well-functioning social protection programs, and good implementation infrastructure, pre-COVID, have been able to scale up more quickly during the pandemic,” it said.

The economic shock of the pandemic was also expected to lead to a jump in poverty, defined as income of $5.50 a day, the bank said, adding that based on past experience and the latest gross domestic product forecasts, poverty could expand by 33 million to 38 million people to see its first rise in 20 years.

The bank said that 33 million people who would have in the absence of the pandemic escaped poverty would remain in it this year.

“The region is confronted with an unprecedented set of challenges,” said Victoria Kwakwa, vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific at the World Bank.

“But there are smart policy options available that can soften these tradeoffs—such as investing in testing and tracing capacity and durably expanding social protection to cover the poor and the informal sector.” — Reuters

Pag-IBIG Fund grants grace period and offers special loan restructuring to aid borrowers

Pag-IBIG Fund’s top officials announced ‪on Friday ‪(Sept. 25) that the agency has granted a 60-day grace period on all loan payments and is offering a special loan restructuring program for home loan borrowers in its efforts to provide members financial relief amid the pandemic.

Secretary Eduardo D. del Rosario, Chairman of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and the 11-member Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees, said that they have granted a one-time 60-day grace period on payments of all loans in accordance with Republic Act No. 11494, otherwise known as the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2), while providing its housing loan borrowers in arrears with a Special Housing Loan Restructuring Program to help update their accounts and keep their homes.

“We heed and support President Duterte’s call to help our fellow Filipinos who are experiencing financial hardships brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. We recognize that this pandemic continues to impact jobs and businesses in the country. And so the Board has immediately approved the implementation of the 60-day grace period following the signing of the Bayanihan 2 law and our Special Housing Loan Restructuring Program to provide further financial relief to our members,” said del Rosario.

He added that under Pag-IBIG Fund’s guidelines, the granting of the 60-day grace period will be applied automatically to all loan payments on the agency’s Multi-Purpose Loan, Calamity Loan, and Housing Loan which fall due from September 15 until November 14, 2020. The grace period will give borrowers payment reprieve without incurring any penalty, and interest on interest.

“Under the Bayanihan 2 law, the grace period covers loan accounts with up to 3 months in arrears. But under our approved Pag-IBIG guidelines, we will cover loan accounts with up to 9 months in arrears so we can help more borrowers, specifically those whose incomes were affected when community quarantines were first declared in mid-March. And while the accrued interest is payable ‪until December 31 under the Bayahihan 2, Pag-IBIG Fund will allow payment of accrued interest on a staggered basis during the remaining term of the loan, thus providing for an even longer and easier payment term for our borrowers,” del Rosario added.

The Special Housing Loan Restructuring Program, meanwhile, aims to further help Pag-IBIG housing loan borrowers save their properties from foreclosure. Under the program, borrowers whose finances have been affected by the pandemic may renegotiate the terms of the loan and secure a more affordable payment term. Borrowers can soon apply for the restructuring program online by visiting the Virtual Pag-IBIG ‪until December 15, 2020.

“After our string of ‘best year ever,’ this is the time for Pag-IBIG to show how much we care about our member-borrowers. Under Bayanihan 1, we granted a grace period to 4.77 million borrowers and approved nearly 300,000 applications under our 3-month payment moratorium program. And now, this added grace period and our Special Housing Restructuring Program will help our member-borrowers – especially those who are currently experiencing financial difficulties – even more,” said Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti.

“But we also would like to encourage our borrowers who are capable of paying, to continue paying their loans. Better collections will allow us to keep offering loans at low interest rates to more members. Tulad po ng pangalan ng batas, ngayon ay panahon upang magbayanihan. Help us in helping more members because together, we can overcome the challenges we are facing today. Sa ating pagkakaisa, madadaig natin ang pandemyang ito,” Moti ended.

Duterte blasts Facebook after military, police pages taken down

President Rodrigo R. Duterte criticized Facebook Inc. for taking down accounts supposedly linked to the military and police, and questioned if it should continue operations in one of its biggest markets in Asia.

Mr. Duterte said the social media giant should not bar pages critical of the Communist insurgency, saying these pages are part of the government’s advocacy to protect the people. He sought talks with Facebook officials to address the issue.

“Facebook, listen to me. We allow you to operate here hoping that you could help us also,” Duterte said in a televised address late Monday. “If government cannot espouse or advocate something which is for the good of the people, then what is your purpose here in my country?”

Facebook declined to comment.

Facebook and other social media sites have come under greater scrutiny in recent years for how they handle disinformation and hate speech, with executives pledging vigilance before the US Congress in June.

Facebook on Sept. 23 said it removed networks originating in China and Philippines for violating policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior, with fake accounts a central part of their operations. It removed 57 accounts, 31 pages and 20 Instagram accounts originating in the Philippines, and its investigation found links to Philippine military and police. — Andreo Calonzo/Bloomberg

Self-disinfecting face mask said to kill most pathogens, including coronavirus

Self-disinfecting Fine Guard face masks are said to kill 99.9% of pathogens upon contact, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This is according to Fine Hygienic Holding, a wellness group and manufacturer of hygienic paper products based in the Middle East.

The masks are made from a textile that incorporates patented virus control methods from Livinguard, a hygiene technology company.  The effectivity of the technology was clinically tested and proven by the University of Arizona, the Institute for Animal Hygiene and Environmental Health at the Free University of Berlin, and the Institut für Textiltechnik of RWTH Aachen University.

Instead of chemicals, Livinguard technology uses positive ions to disrupt the negatively charged membranes of pathogens. Aside from being non-toxic to humans, this technology hinders pathogens from developing resistance to chemicals.

“What’s amazing with this technology is—after the virus and bacteria are dead, it falls away from the mask and the positive charges stay on the mask, ready to go for the next one. You don’t lose any of the power of having viruses and bacteria interact with the mask,” said James Lafferty, chief executive officer of Fine Hygienic Holding.

The masks have adjustable ear bands and are designed to fit snugly and comfortably on the face. The Fine Guard masks passed sensitization, irritation, and acute dermal toxicity standards by Nelson Labs, a microbiology testing center headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Two variants, the Fine Guard Comfort Mask and Fine Guard N95 Mask, are available locally. The former is reusable for up to one year while the latter for up to three years. Both can last up to 30 washes, using hand soap instead of detergent to retain the charge of the positive ions.

“We do not sell disposable masks. Everybody asks me why, and the reason is to be responsible. We will not help pollute our world,” said Mr. Lafferty.

The Comfort Mask and the N95 Mask cost P995 and P1,495, respectively. They are available at True Value; Armed Forces of the Philippines Commissary and Exchange Service military stores in Fort Bonifacio and Camp Aguinaldo; Rustan’s Department Stores; and Beauty Bar stores in Glorietta, Greenbelt, and Central Square.

Online, the masks are available through Birch Registry, Fine Guard Philippines’ flagship store in Lazada, Beauty Bar, and True Value on the MetroMart app and Lazada. They will soon be available on Shopee, Zalora, Watsons, The Marketplace Supermarket on the MetroMart app, and trunc.ph. — Mariel Alison L. Aguinaldo

Metro kept under general lockdown

Metro Manila will still remain under a general community quarantine until Oct. 31 to contain a coronavirus pandemic, according to the government.

Batangas and the cities of Tacloban, Bacolod, Iloilo and Iligan will join the capital under a general lockdown, while Lanao Del Sur was placed under a stricter quarantine, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said at a televised address late Monday.

Meanwhile, Lanao del Sur including Marawi City will be under a modified enhanced community quarantine after a spike in coronavirus cases, he said.

The rest of the Philippines will still be under a more relaxed modified general community quarantine.

The capital region remained under a general lockdown given rising infections in some areas, and hospitals that were almost fully occupied, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told the ABS-CBN News Channel on Tuesday.

The Department of Health (DoH) reported 3,073 coronavirus infections on Monday, bringing the total to 307,288.

The death toll rose by 37 to 5,381, while recoveries increased by 163 to 252,665, it said in a bulletin.

There were 49,242 active cases, 86.4% of which were mild, 8.7% did not show symptoms, 1.5% were severe and 3.4% were critical, the agency said.

Metro Manila reported the highest number of cases with 1,158, followed by Cavite with 225, Laguna with 203, Rizal with 173 and Batangas with 169.

DoH has said it would reclassify community quarantines based on a so-called two-week attack rate of the virus. It used to recommend lockdown restrictions based on the doubling rate of cases and deaths.

Under the new setup, the growth rate will be determined by comparing cases every two weeks, Ms. Vergeire told an online news briefing on Monday. — Gillian M. Cortez

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