President Rodrigo Duterte said in jest that monkeys should be killed if monkeypox would be as fatal as Covid-19.,The Chief Executive also said he was hoping that the re-emergence of monkeypox would not kill many people while the country is still dealing with the coronavirus pandemic,“I hope [it won’t be fatal] because if that’s the case, all of the monkeys will undergo mass execution,” he said in his pre-recorded public address Monday.,Health Undersecretary Abdullah Dumama, in the same meeting, assured the President that the mortality rate of the rare viral disease is only about one percent.,“It is not that virulent and cannot cause severe illness,” Dumama said.,Monkeypox, a viral disease that looks like Smallpox, was recently detected in at least 20 countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany.,It was first documented in animals in 1958 when two outbreaks occurred in monkeys kept for research.,Symptoms of monkeypox typically include skin lesions, fever, intense headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes, which may lead to a range of medical complications.,The Monkeypox virus is transmitted to humans through close contact like wounds, body fluids, respiratory droplets with an infected person or animal, or with contaminated materials, although experts say it is less transmissible than smallpox.,The health department assured the public that no case of monkeypox has been detected yet within the Philippines, but said it was “intensifying” border screening controls to prevent its spread.,The agency said it would also ensure that the country’s surveillance systems were actively monitoring the situation.