President Rodrigo Duterte and US President Donald Trump have agreed to cooperate in the effort to fight the coronavirus disease.

Upon the initiative of the US, the two leaders had an 18-minute phone conversation on Sunday night, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing on Monday.

Roque described the meeting as "cordial."

The two leaders talked "about bilateral collaboration on COVID-19," Roque said.

He refused to divulge other matters that Duterte and Trump could have discussed.

As of Sunday afternoon, the Department of Health reported a total of 5,259 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 572 recoveries and 409 deaths.

A total of 52,837 individuals have undergone COVID-19 testing.

The US, on the other hand, has over 764,000 cases, with over 40,000 deaths and more than 71,000 recoveries, according to worldometers.info. Celerina Monte/DMS