USA now leads the world in COVID deaths

For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky” we bring you once again Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia whom we featured at the start of Holy Week. Since nothing much has happened during Holy Week when we stayed home, we also didn’t have any interviews with anyone and I believe that my show with Governor Garcia is still very relevant at this time. So replaying her talk with me is the right thing to do.

Governor Garcia will talk about what she has been doing these past few weeks since Cebu has been placed on community quarantine and eventually a total lockdown. I can just imagine the whole trouble that the governor has experienced these past few weeks.

The governor’s aggressiveness has resulted in Cebu not getting any new COVID-19 infected. We experienced only four deaths in Cebu City with none from Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City, or the Province of Cebu. No matter what some people say against the governor, we are being saved from this global virus. So watch our talk with Governor Garcia tonight on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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The only major news report I gathered for you came from a doctor from New York who was interviewed by Hannity on Fox New who talked about the results of his using Hydroxy Choloroquine and Azithromycin. He used 200mg twice daily for Hydroxy Choloroquine and 500mg once a day for Azithromycin 220mg once a day on 350 patients and this resulted in breathing restored in three to four hours, and no deaths, hospitalizations, or intubations. So whoever said that Hydroxy Choloroquine doesn’t work against COVID-19 has to be completely stupid!

So why are we still struggling to find the right medicine to fight COVID-19? I saw on TV today that the United States has beat Italy in the highest number of deaths. As reported by USA Today, the US has passed Italy to become the country with the most coronavirus deaths. However, as a proportion of the total population in the US, virus deaths remain at about one-sixth of those in Italy or Spain.

According to data from the Johns Hopkins University, more than 19,700 people in the US have died due to complications from the coronavirus as of Saturday afternoon. Last Friday, the US saw its highest daily death count yet, at 2,108.

Italy's death toll was at 19,468 and Spain had 16,353 reported deaths.

Around the world, the death count has surpassed 104,000. Estimates on how many people will end up dying in the US fluctuated in recent weeks as new data continues to come in. While the numbers in the US has started to slow down, we cannot deny watching the reality that in New York City they dug a mass grave to bury bodies that no one has claimed.

I learned that most of the dead were recovered from retirement homes for old people. This is the culture of America where parents are placed in retirement homes as their children are too busy to take care of them. Years ago, I once visited a high-end retirement home, a medium-end home, and a low-cost home together with my cousin who is a doctor. This is one aspect of American culture that I truly dislike. If the bodies of old people are unclaimed, it can also be due to the fact that their children live far away from the retirement home and do not even know that their parents or grandparents have died. This is America for you!

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We are now more than 14 days since our lockdown and people are wondering whether we should start returning to normalcy. At this point, we have to make sure that there will not be a returning COVID-19 disaster, that is happening in Hong Kong, Wuhan in China, South Korea, and Japan. In short, while we are proud that the Philippines has one of the lowest cases of this virus, we should continue washing and disinfecting our hands often and to ensure that facilities to make these easier to do are readily available as it is still the best defense against the coronavirus.