Galvez discloses 3 salient points in national anti-COVID plan second phase

There are three imperatives as to the implementation of the second phase of the national action plan that was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Thursday, said National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday.

In a briefing aired past midnight, Galvez said the second phase of the plan involved three imperatives such as the compliance of the public, unity of effort, and the capacity of the national government and local governments to manage COVID-19 cases lessen the number of deaths due to the novel coronavirus.

"Sa ngayon po, sa ating statistics, from July 1 to July 6, anim lang po ang ating deaths at ayun po ang nakikita natin, if we address the rate of deaths, we can open our economy," Galvez said.

"'Yun po ang pinaka-ultimate objective po natin, that we have to manage the deaths like the other countries like Vietnam and also Israel that were able to address that," he added.

Meanwhile, Galvez said that a major imperative was changing the public's mindset "that the success of our campaign is basically anchored on the people's support and active participation and vigilance."

"As you have said, Mr. President, that we have to concentrate on the prevention. Since prevention will not only save more lives but also our critical resources," he said.

The chief implementer of the plan also stressed the importance of unity of command and effort.

"During the Phase 1 of our campaign... we have seen that areas with unity of command and unity of effort, we were able to manage and contain the spread of the COVID-19," he said.

Galvez added that "our local leaders should be with us together with the private sector. So 'yun po ang kailangan natin, kailangan po magkaisa... dahil kasi minsan kapag hindi nagkakaroon ng pagkakaisa katulad ng nangyari sa Cebu na nagkaroon po ng hidwaan sa politika, talaga pong minsan po hindi po sumusunod ang mga tao."

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier announced that Cebu City will remain under enhanced community quarantine. -- BAP, GMA News