Herbosa believes Philippines has already contained COVID-19

An official of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 on Wednesday said he believes the country can now be labeled as having controlled the illness.

At the Laging Handa Briefing, NTF medical adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said this is because the Philippines has been recording a positivity rate of around less than 5% for almost two weeks.

“I think medyo magdadalawang linggo na ata tayong below 5%. So I think we can be labeled as controlled kasi walang masyadong new cases ng COVID,” Herbosa said.

(I think it has been nearly two weeks that we have less than 5% benchmark. So I think we can be labeled as "controlled" because we don’t have a lot of new cases.)

The Philippines on Tuesday recorded a positivity rate of 2.3%, meeting the benchmark of the World Health Organization of 5% as well as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of 3%.

It also reported only 1,153 new infections, bringing the nationwide tally to 2,827,820.

However, Herbosa stressed that this does not mean COVID-19 has been eliminated in the country.

“Pwede pa din siya mag resurge dahil nandoon pa rin sa test positivity rate na above 0. Pag nag zero ‘yan ‘yun ang eliminated,” he said.

(A resurgence is possible because the positivity rate is still above 0. If it is zero, it can be called eliminated.) —LBG, GMA News