Lian town mayor Isagani Bolompo, 68, passed away Saturday evening after testing positive from COVID-19, a report said. 

"Business establishments are enjoined to adopt multiple and staggered work shifts (workers are to be allowed to adopt work shift schedule starting at e.g., 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 9 a.m., and so on) to allow more workers to report to work but still maintaining the physical distancing requirements, to spread out the congestion on our roads, and to ease the demand for public transportation."

Over half a year into the pandemic, the national government is still wrestling with curbing the spread of the pathogen, with the Philippines still being under the longest recorded quarantine in the world after 222 days of community quarantine. 

Accounting for casualties and recoveries, there are still 529 active coronavirus cases in the Philippine National Police, marking a significant drop from the 969 active infections in early October when the agency's tally breached the 6,200-mark.

An energized Joe Biden and Barack Obama accused Donald Trump of a massive screw-up in his handling of the coronavirus, but the US president remained ebullient despite trailing in polls with 10 days to go until the election.