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Is the Philippines winning the fight vs. COVID-19? DOH says 'we're managing cases'
By LLANESCA T. PANTI,GMA NewsThe country is still in the thick of the battle against COVID-19 as it prepares its health care facilities and its health workers for a possible increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said on Monday.
“Sa tanong kung nananalo ba tayo, nagma-manage po tayo, pine-prepare po natin ang ating health care system para mas maka-accommodate po tayo ng mas maraming pasyente so we can appropriately address the situation,” Vergeire said during the Palace briefing.
The Philippines has recorded 103,185 COVID-19
cases as of Sunday. Of this number, 65,557 have recovered while 2,059 died.National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez also would not say that the Philippines is winning its COVID-19 fight at this point.
“We are in a critical phase of the management of the crisis,” Galvez said.
It was at the end of June when presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. said that the Philippines won its fight against COVID-19
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At that time, the country registered around 36,000 COVID-19 cases.
The UP researchers again predicted that 80,000 COVID-19 cases will be recorded by end of July, a prediction that was breached even before July ended.
On Sunday night, August 2, President Rodrigo Duterte has already placed Metro Manila and other highly urbanized areas under stricter modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ)—a protocol that bans mass transport and non-essential work—from August 4 to 18 as the number of COVID-19 cases breached 103,000.
Vergeire said that this MECQ period will enable the government to improve contact tracing efforts and deploy substitute teams from the regions to enable fatigued health care workers to rest from time to time. —KG, GMA News