Population density making COVID-19 fight tougher — Palace spox Roque

Population density  is making the fight against COVID-19 more challenging, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Tuesday.

Roque made the a day after President Rodrigo Duterte decided to place maintain Metro Manila on general community quarantine until June 30 and placing Cebu City and Talisay City in Cebu back to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ, respectively, from GCQ due to the increasing COVID-19 cases there.

“Population density is a part of the problem. Dikit-dikit talaga tayo. Nais man nating mag-social distancing, mahirap gawin. Pero iyon lang po ang ating sandata ngayon kasi wala pang gamot, wala pang vaccine. Social distancing po, saka pagsusuot ng face mask, paghuhugas ng kamay,” Roque said.

Roque also said Metro Manila remains the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, considering that the region has at least 14 million inhabitants.

“Ang risk po ng National Capital Region (NCR) ay moderate. 6.9 po. Ang advantage lang po rito ay dahil dito ang capital, andito po ang karamihan ng critical care units,” Roque said.

Roque, however, assured the public that the Philippines’ COVID-19 situation has been improving, and that the quarantine measures are working and will work again.

Roque said the COVID-19 case doubling rate in the country is at 10 days, and that the COVID-19 mortality rate is under 10 per day.

“Iyan po ay ilang importanteng bagay na nagpapatunay na gumagana iyong ating lockdown. At dahil gumana itong lockdown, sigurado na gagana rin po ito sa Cebu City at Talisay City at patuloy na po nating mapapababa ang bilang ng COVID-19 cases,” Roque said.

As of June 16, the Philippines has 26,420 COVID-19 cases. Of this number, 6,252  have recovered while 1,098 have died. — RSJ, GMA News