1st-week ECQ effect may be felt up to two weeks —NTF adviser

The effect of the first-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces may take up to two weeks to manifest, the medical adviser of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said Sunday.

In a "Dobol B TV" interview, Dr. Ted Herbosa, NTF adviser, clarified that the surge in COVID-19 cases reported during the reimplementation of ECQ in the NCR Plus area is not real-time.

He pointed out that the reported COVID-19 cases in the past week, which have already reached over 15,000 on Saturday

"Lumalabas lang yung sintomas nila after mga four or five days saka sila mate-test, usually about a week (The symptoms come out after four or five days, and then suspected coronavirus carriers will usually have themselves tested after one week), he said.

"So yung mga nakikita nating matataas na numero nitong mga nakaraang araw, malamang na-infect na sila a week pa bago tayo nag-strict ECQ" (Most probably, the surge in cases that we saw in the past few days got infected a week before ECQ's re-impostion), he added.

"Yung effect nitong ECQ na ginawa natin, at na-extend, ang epekto nito makikita mo about a week or two weeks later pa kasi nga [noon] pa lang mapipigilan yung hawa-hawa at paggalaw ng mga tao"(Thus, the effect of that ECQ, which is now extended, will be seen about a week or two weeks later because it was the time we began preventing people's mobility), he explained further.

Herbosa said the public should not expect that the number of COVID-19 cases will go down right away.

"Ang nakikita nating matataas ay yung dati pa yan" (The surge we are seeing is from old cases), he said adding, that's how authorities monitor infections.

The National Capital Region and the surrounding provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna will remain for another week under ECQ starting April 5 as cases of COVID-19 in the country continue to increase.

Further, he noted that the intent of the ECQ is not merely to control the pandemic, but also to protect the country's health system and prevent hospitals from running into overcapacity.

On Saturday, the Philippines logged 12,576 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 784,043. —LBG, GMA News