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Political bickering affecting local COVID responses, Galvez observes


Political bickering in some local government units has affected the implementation of the interventions against the spread of COVID-19, chief implementer of government's response against COVID-19 Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said Thursday.

In a Palace briefing on Thursday,  Galvez said the situation of COVID-19 cases improves when the local government units have cohesion.

“’Yung mga lugar na meron talagang political bickering at tsaka malakas ang politika, doon nagkakaroon ng malakas na impeksyon kasi there is no unity of effort,” he said.

“Once we’re able to have ‘yung cohesion at na-unify namin ‘yung politika, at the same time, ‘yung lahat ng mga doctor and all stakeholders work together, nakita namin na umaayos po ang kaso,” he said.

During the Phase 1 of the action plan against the pandemic, Galvez admitted local governments have different approaches in implementing interventions.

“Talagang kanya-kanya po ng implementasyon,” he said.

"Pero sa ngayon po naging maganda because we were able to localize 'yung ating national action plan sa Phase 2. At the same time, madalas na tayong bumibisita sa mga LGUs,” he added.

According to the University of the Philippines OCTA Research team, the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines has been decreasing, based on the data  from August 25 to October 5.

The team said the country's reproduction number, which describes the reproduction of COVID-19 cases, has kept its downward trend.

“The number of cases in the Philippines has been decreasing, and currently at less around 2,500 new cases per day (based on case reports),” the OCTA Research team said.

This is lower compared to the almost 4,000 new cases per day recorded during the last week of August.

“The reproduction number in the Philippines is 0.87, in line with the downward trend in test reports,” it added. A reproduction number below 1 means a flattened curve, according to the experts. —LBG, GMA News

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