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Bayan to Roque: No, Harry. We did not win squat


Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary general Renato Reyes on Tuesday slammed presidential spokesperson Harry Roque for claiming that the Philippines beat the prediction of experts from the University of the Philippines that COVID-19 cases would reach 40,000 by the end of June.

"No, Harry. We did not win squat. The self-congratulations is grossly misinformed and intellectually dishonest," Reyes said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Roque congratulated the public after the COVID-19 cases did not reach 40,000. He urged the public Monday to observe precautionary measures.

“Panalo na tayo. We beat the UP prediction po. We beat it, so congratulations Philippines. Let’s do it again in July. We are winning,” he said in a televised briefing,

The Department of Health (DOH) has, so far, reported a total of 37,514 cases with 10,233 recoveries while the death toll has reached 1,266.

Reyes said "the situation could be worse. We are just NOT seeing it because we are not testing enough.“

"Gloating over a patently false claim of 'beating UP's prediction' serves on real purpose. It will not bring down the infections. It only serves the desire of [the] government to cover-up its major blunders," he added.

Reyes also claimed that the DOH has a backlog of 10,000 as the DOH has reported 35,455 confirmed cases despite 46,272 individuals having tested positive for the virus as of Sunday.

"Contrary to what Roque claims, nowhere in any DOH report do we see a backlog of only 1,000. Unless the DOH has changed its definition of a backlog in validation, Roque's claims are false. He offers no proof of this '1,000 backlog'," he said.

"Even assuming half of the 10,817 validation backlog are duplicates, we still end up with 40,000 confirmed cases. Changing definitions and slowing down the validation will not change the fact that we have an increasing incidence of COVID-19," he added.

Another study by experts predicted that the country's COVID-19 cases may reach 60,000 by the end of July.—AOL, GMA News

 

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