President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed optimism that the novel coronavirus would "die a natural death."

Emerging from an emergency meeting with the members of his Cabinet on Monday night, Duterte believed that with the "progress in medical science," the disease could be treatable soon.

"Like SARS (severe respiratory syndrome), I assure you, even without the vaccines, it will just die a natural death," he said in a press conference.

He also cited the case of HIV.

"The HIV five or 10 years ago was a dreaded disease and everybody was afraid of it to the extent that it cut the pleasures of the world. Everybody is afraid of HIV...so, almost everybody became a celibate overnight," Duterte said.

In the case of nCoV, he said, "Would it worsen in the meantime? Maybe."

"But you know the progress of medical science now is far too different from --- of the yesteryears....we have powerful medicines now that - even cancer is treatable now," the 74-year old Duterte said.

The death toll from coronavirus has risen to at least 425 in mainland China, except for one each in the Philippines and Hong Kong.

The fatality in the Philippines was a 44-year-old male Chinese who came from Wuhan, the epicenter of nCoV, in Hubei, China.

As of February 3, the Department of Health has recorded 80 patients under investigation for nCoV. Celerina Monte/DMS