Roque: NCR Plus under ECQ due to new COVID-19 variants, not lack of gov't response

Metro Manila and its adjacent provinces are back under the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) protocol due to the emergence of new coronavirus variants, not because of government’s failure.

“Wala pong katotohanan iyan.  Ang katotohanan po, hanggang February 22 ay nakontrol na po natin ang pagkalat ng COVID and, more or less, humigit-kumulang ay 1,000 cases na lang tayo a day. Pero pumasok po ang mga bagong variant,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on GMA News’ Unang Balita when asked if the return to ECQ proves that the government’s COVID-19 response failed.

(That the government failed is not true. We have been cutting down the COVID-19 transmission until February 22 this year when we were just recording around 1,000 cases per day. But the new variants emerged.)

The new variants were first discovered in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.

“Mabuti na lang po na-discover na hindi mas nakakamatay ang mga variant na ito, pero ang talaga naman pong hindi maitatanggi, mas nakakahawa po,” he added.

(The new variants are not deadlier but they are more transmissible, and that cannot be denied.)

Under the ECQ protocol, non-essential business establishments are not allowed to operate. Dining in restaurants is also not allowed, while curfew has been imposed from 6 pm to 5 am.

Roque repeated this argument that the government’s response, or lack of it, is not to blame in the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases in another ANC interview.

“It is not because of the government. It is because of the virus. The virus mutated,” Roque said.

“It is something no one could have done anything about because that is the nature of the viruses: to mutate. What we need to do now is to adapt to this variant if they are more transmissible by observing minimum public health standards and having your COVID-19 vaccine if you are able to have it now,” Roque added. — Llanesca T. Panti/RSJ, GMA News