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Gov't should not have patted itself on the back on COVID-19 response –expert
The government patted itself on the back over its pandemic response when it shouldn't have given that the nation's coronavirus disease cases continued to rise, an infectious disease expert said in a 24 Oras report on Monday.
In Ivan Mayrina's report, Asian Hospital and Medical Center pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. Benjamin Co said allowing businesses to operate and reopening the economy sent "mixed messages" to the public.
"We patted ourselves in the back when we shouldn't have. Hey guys we can now go out and eat, we can bring the kids along, we can open the theaters
already. So, that's the mixed message and then all of a sudden three weeks later, you do a 360 degree turn around and then you say ECQ," lamented Co.The infectious disease specialist added that if the government imposed stricter quarantine measures during the rise of COVID-19 cases and the detection of COVID-19 variants, the surge would likely not have happened.
Data from the Health Department showed that from February 8 to March 6, the daily average of COVID-19 cases doubled to 2,414 average cases per day.
"We have more numbers in that week, compared to the peak in August. That's bad because that means there are too many cases and it is at the time where the variants are being recognized. Have we done this (enhanced community quarantine) earlier after March 8 siguro, I don't think we will be in this spot," Co pointed out.
The government only imposed an ECQ on the NCR Plus bubble at the end of March.
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Behavior of people
However, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they were able to respond to the sudden reports of variants by restricting travel to countries with cases of COVID-19 variants, which are more contagious.
She added that the government was also able to trace the individuals infected with the variants from Cordillera Administrative Region and other areas.
Vergeire also said the variants alone should not be blamed for the rise of virus transmission, citing that the behavior of the public must also be evaluated.
"We were able to do restrictions to contain the spread. It is not just that factor. We need to look at the behavior of people," she said.
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease has yet to reply to GMA News on the expert's assessment of the pandemic response. — Consuelo Marquez/DVM, GMA News