THE MANGAHAS INTERVIEWS

Roque on rising COVID-19 cases: No need to panic

There is no need to panic over the increasing COVID-19 cases in the country, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Tuesday.

Roque, in an interview with GMA News’ The Mangahas Interviews, said this after 3,000 new COVID-19 cases were recorded each day for the last four days.

“Hindi pa rin ako nagpa-panic, kasi iyong ginawa nga natin iyong lockdown, hinanda natin ang ating health system,” Roque said.

“Nasa 60% ang availability ng hospital beds and facilities [for COVID-19] patients. Kaya natin silang pagsilbihan, alagaan at pagalingin,” Roque added.

Nevertheless, Roque urged the public to do its part by intensifying compliance with minimum health standards which included wearing a face mask and face shield, washing hands, observing physical distancing, and getting a COVID-19 vaccine shot as soon as it was available.

Roque earlier said there was no need to revert to a full-scale lockdown at this point.

Former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit agreed with Roque but said that the vaccination program should be accelerated to prevent a further economic downturn.

At least 1.12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to the Philippines so far.

Of this number, 600,000 doses were Sinovac vaccines donated by the Chinese government while 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines were donated by wealthy nations and firms under the COVAX facility which aids low and middle-income countries in their pandemic response. — Llanesca T. Panti/DVM, GMA News