Duque to Duterte: Eased restrictions led to COVID-19 surge

The easing of COVID-19 restrictions to kick start the economy led to to the exponential increase in the number of coronavirus cases over the past several days, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Monday night.

Duque also cited the what he called many Filipinos' token compliance with the mandatory use of face masks and face shields and the presence of new COVID-19 variants--supposedly more transmissible--in the country.

"So nagluwag tayo at binuksan natin ang malaking bahagi ng ekonomiya... na nagdulot ng increase mobility and yung increased mobility nagdulot ng increased transmission kaya exponential," Duque said.

Duque made the remark in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's question on why the number of COVID-19 cases increased steeply over the past days. -NB, GMA News