HEADS UP: COVID Total Tops 1 Million as Duterte Weighs MECQ Extension (April 27)

Here's a Heads Up from Reportr.World on news that you need to know today, April 27:

MECQ EXTENSION?

• Yesterday, the Philippines' total COVID cases topped the one-million mark.
• President Rodrigo Duterte is due to decide on tomorrow on nationwide quarantines for May, and whether the MECQ in the NCR Plus bubble will be extended or downgraded.
• Health Sec. Francisco Duque said he was in favor of a one to two weeks extension of the MECQ to give the health system more time to breathe.

CULTURE EXPLAINED

• This Gen Z nutritionist with tens of thousands of followers wants to change your views on healthy eating. Yes, you deserve to eat.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

• Running requirements for your new job? Here's how to apply for an NBI clearance online
• Here's why Ivermectin is not yet recommended for COVID treatment, according to Dr. Anna Ong-Lim of the Department of Health Technical Advisory Group.

TRENDING NEWS

• How to get five million views on TikTok in three days? Connect with your audience. Dance your heart out. Spread good vibes. Meet San Pablo City's dancing foopanda riders.
• Wait, don't skip. Here are three priests who are reaching out to their flock using TikTok. Evangelizing Gen Z, one video at a time.

MOBILITY NEWS

• San Miguel will build a bus rapid transit or BRT system on the Skyway, said its President Ramon Ang.
• Happening now on EDSA: working bike lanes that will serve as blueprint for active transportation.
• The April test run of the LRT-2 East Extension was postponed due to COVID challenges. Opening is scheduled in late June.

NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The Coast Guard is investigating a yellow discharge from a ship docked on Manila Bay for a possible oil spill.
• Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, spokesman of the counter-insurgency NTF-ELCAC, shot back at senators who called him stupid for criticizing community pantries at the onset. Now, he said he fully supports the movement.
• Dr. Ted Herbosa, who was criticized for his "death by community pantry" Twitter post believes he was targeted by the "troll army" as he rued the country's "blame culture."
• Ex-President Joseph Estrada will be discharged from the hospital after battling COVID-19 for weeks.
• The crowd who gathered at actress Angel Locsin's community pantry last Friday is being offered free COVID tests in Quezon City.

OSCARS 2021

• H.E.R., who won Best Original Song, sent a special shoutout to the Filipino and Black communities that they too could win an Academy Award. She is half-Filipina.

• Here are the winners of the 2021 Oscars. They include Chloe Zhao, only the second woman to win best director, and Pixar's "Soul."