Malacañang on Thursday warned the Luzon-wide lockdown might be extended again if the public continues to ignore and violate guidelines under the Enhanced Community Quarantine, adding that a “total lockdown” remains an option for the government.
Inter-Agency Task Force spokesperson Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said extending the ECQ maybe considered due to the recent rise in the number of individuals caught violating quarantine guidelines, as he appealed to the public to follow the law and help stop the spread of the deadly virus.
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“Please stay at home. We need your cooperation,” Nograles told the public in a virtual press briefing.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman said a “total lockdown” might be considered if the government fails to flatten the curve on new infections.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said a total lockdown is an option, considering that there are still many quarantine violators who continue to defy Duterte’s order to stay at home.
Nograles said the government is now appealing for the public’s cooperation as the Luzon lockdown reaches the “last stretch.”
“April 30 is when the ECQ ends. It’s already what—April 16. It’s been more than a month already, and all of us have sacrificed for so many weeks. But now that we’re down to our last stretch, we’re seeing people becoming complacent. All our sacrifices will be for naught because some people are looking for ways to go out. It just destroys everything,” Nograles said in a mix of English and Filipino.
“That’s why I’m saying when in doubt, don’t do it,” he added.
The task force earlier announced that it will enforce a stricter implementation of lockdown measures after it had observed an increased number of ECQ violators and vehicles on EDSA and major thoroughfares in Metro Manila.
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He also said that while the Philippines has the most number of cases of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia, the public should not be alarmed or disheartened because the government is doing all it can to contain the contagious disease.
He added that there is no contest among nations to have the least number of cases, and said that the recent surge in the Philippines is a result of increased testing.
The Palace official said more coronavirus cases could be detected as the government ramps up targeted testing in the coming days to curb the spread of the disease.
The priority for testing includes probable and suspected coronavirus cases, hospitalized patients, and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
“Some scientists will say that we have not yet detected all COVID-19 possible carriers so we must conduct aggressive testing,” he said.
“We need to test more so we can detect more, isolate, and treat them,” he added.
He said the treatment of COVID-19 patients will be part of the medium-term goal while the world waits for the vaccine for the disease. He noted that the vaccine may still take a year to develop.
“It’s a race to find a vaccine but just to manage everybody’s expectations, they say, it might take a year before a vaccine is ready. The medium-term goal is to look for the best medicine, medical intervention, and treatment that we can provide,” he said.
He also said the Philippines is implementing the same measures being implemented in other countries to contain the COVID-19.
The entire Luzon and some parts of Visayas and Mindanao have been placed under ECQ to contain the spread of COVID-19.
READ: Cops to arrest motorists violating lockdown rules
Implementing an ECQ means people are prohibited from leaving their homes unless they have to access basic necessities or they are exempt from observing the quarantine protocols.
ECQ is deemed different from the proposed total lockdown, which bars people from going out of their homes and recommends the closure of all public establishments.
Nograles, meanwhile, said a small group tasked by President Duterte to study the possible scenarios after April 30 would come up with recommendations with regard to ECQ’s fate by Monday.
“This coming Monday, they will have something to present to the IATF. So let’s just wait. But they’re looking at all aspects,” Nograles said.
Nograles said the IATF-EID would then have an extensive deliberation on the recommendations that would be made by the small group.
“That will guide us all the way for next week and at one point, we will present that to the President,” he said.
Pending the IATF and Duterte’s decision on the fate of Luzon-wide ECQ, there have been proposals to impose a “selective” lifting of the ECQ.
Nograles said when it comes to the proposed selective lifting of ECQ, the government has to take into considerations five parameters, which include the trends in COVID-19 epidemiological curve, the capacity of the health care system, and the social, economic, and security factors.
With only two weeks before Luzon-wide ECQ expires, Roque called on the public to follow the quarantine measures imposed by the government to stop the further transmission of COVID-19.
Roque said the number of cases in the country would have “doubled or tripled,” had the government not imposed the ECQ.
While it is difficult to restrain public movements, doing so would help reduce the number of COVID-19, he said.
For the second time in as many days, the number of recoveries, 435, surpassed the number of deaths, 362, the Department of Health said.
The DOH registered the highest record of recoveries from the respiratory disease at 83 overtaking Wednesday›s record of 58.
However, confirmed cases for the new virus nationwide jumped to 5,660 with 207 new infections. There were also 13 new deaths, bringing total fatalities to 362.
The DOH on Thursday said the case fatality rate for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the Philippines is at 6.6 percent.
Health Undersecretary Lilibeth David said the global case fatality rate for COVID-19 is at 6.4 percent.
David noted other countries with higher death rates include Italy at 12.9 percent, Spain at 10.5 percent, and Indonesia at 9.4 percent.
She said that while the Philippines recorded the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia, the country accounted for only 0.28 percent of cases and 0.28 percent of confirmed deaths globally.
«Most of our confirmed cases and admitted cases are those in the working-age group and older, 20 years and above. But if we look at our deaths, it›s really the older persons group at 50 years old and older,» David said.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara renewed his appeal to those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their blood plasma to help save more lives, particularly those that are in severe or critical condition.
After spending more than a week at the hospital for COVID-19, Angara has since recovered and has donated his blood plasma as requested by his doctors.
Researchers and doctors alike have reported that several COVID-19 patients in critical condition showed improvements or were able recover after receiving convalescent plasma treatment.
The procedure involves getting blood from people who recovered from COVID-19 because they have the antibodies to the disease in their blood.
The blood then goes through a process to separate the plasma with the antibodies, which is then transfused into a COVID-19 patient.
Angara was informed by his doctors that a health worker infected with COVID-19 would benefit from his blood plasma and so considering his own experience as a patient, he did not think twice about donating his blood.
“As for me, it›s the least I could do to pay back when the doctors called me and they said, there was a patient in need and he was a health worker. I said, wow, this is perfect, you know. We really need to help these guys,” Angara said in a television interview.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Red Cross has taken another step in its campaign to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 after its testing center in its national headquarters located along EDSA started operations on Wednesday.
Senator Richard J. Gordon, PRC chairman and CEO, said the country’s foremost humanitarian organization has taken on a new function with its PRC Molecular Laboratory.
“At present, we have two testing machines, with each one capable of conducting up to 1,500 tests per day, and this can help so we can test more people,» he said.
The PRC, Gordon said, has already entered, or is in the process of entering agreements with Quezon City, Caloocan, Makati and Mandaluyong to test their constituents.
Swabbing will be conducted in the barangays by PRC or LGU personnel trained by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Then the test kits will be transported to the Molecular Laboratory in Mandaluyong. There the samples will be placed inside the testing machine including the automated RNA extractor and then the PCR MA 6000 will determine whether the sample is negative or positive.
The PRC chairman said the public can also avail of the testing by appointment to ensure that social distancing will be strictly complied with at the testing center. They can call 1158, the PRC’s COVID hotline, where trained PRC staff and volunteers, which include doctors, will interview them and schedule them for testing if needed or refer them to appropriate hospitals.
In related developments:
- The Philippine Institute for Development Studies said the government needs to be able to isolate 70 percent of symptomatic cases of COVID-19 if it wants to push the peak of the pandemic and ease the burden on the country’s health system. A PIDS study, which considered several scenarios, said the best case for the Philippines would be an extension of the ECQ for two to four weeks, but a partial lifting to allow essential industries to operate and the isolation and treatment of 70 percent of symptomatic persons.
- A former Health secretary said the country’s health system is inadequate to sustain the fight against an epidemic like COVID-19. Former Health secretary Manuel Dayrit gave this assessment in his presentation during a virtual hearing of the technical working group of the House of Representatives› Defeat COVID-19 Committee. «The critical question we have to ask ourselves is, is the public health system equal to the threat? If not, then we are still playing catch up…Doing 6,000 tests a day isn›t equal to the threat,» Dayrit said.
- House Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on Thursday called for unity as he appealed to the people to bear with the inconveniences and hardship caused by the lockdown imposed in the government’s effort to control the spread of COVID-19.
- IATF spokesman Karlo Nograles said foreign cruise ships carrying Filipino crew members will be allowed to dock in Manila subject to guidelines to be issued by the task force. Nograles said “foreign cruise ships carrying Filipino crew shall be allowed to dock in ports in Manila and to be used as a quarantine facility for the Filipino crew members.” Foreign crew onboard the cruise ships will be allowed to disembark in Manila for the sole purpose of taking outbound flights to their final destination abroad.
