Police have raided an illegal hospital that had been secretly treating Chinese coronavirus patients.

Two people were arrested and one patient was found during the raid on Tuesday at a residential villa that had been turned into a hospital with seven beds and its own chemists, authorities said.

More than 200 suspected coronavirus rapid test kits and syringes were recovered from the villa, which was in the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone on the site of a former American air base. At the entrance to the building was a small canteen with stacks of beer cases and a red sign welcoming visitors with well wishes in Chinese. 

The Chinese male patient was moved to a legal hospital. Those arrested were the Chinese administrator of the illegal hospital, which may have been operating secretly for about three months, and a compatriot who manned the drugstore.

Police told the Associated Press that the patients were likely to have come from a large number of Chinese nationals working for online gambling companies in the area.

The Philippines, backed by the Chinese government, has launched a crackdown on Chinese citizens who enter the country as tourists and then work for gambling operations, which are illegal in China. The patients are believed to have avoided visiting public hospitals for fear of being arrested.

The Philippines has reported nearly 13,000 coronavirus infections, including 837 Deaths, among the highest in Southeast Asia.

China will have to ‘rapidly activate domestic demand’, according to the country’s minister for industry, as the coronavirus cuts into global trade.

The communist state has been for decades been the world’s factory, manufacturing much of its goods, but despite a recent rebound the effects of the pandemic has cut into China’s ability to sell.

The Chinese minister for Industry and Information Technology, Miao Wei told a news conference on Wednesday that “although our imports and exports in renminbi terms from January to April have increased moderately, I think that if the global pandemic cannot come under effective control, this is unsustainable”.

To drive economic growth, the country will “rapidly activate domestic demand” to make up for weakness in the international markets, he said.

China had already been trying to boost consumption as a key driver of domestic growth in a drive to recalibrate the economy from one driven by exports and state investment.

AP