Government listening to experts and adapting to Delta threat, says Nograles
The country has overcome spikes in COVID-19 cases before, and it will do so again by listening to health experts and adapting accordingly.
This
according to Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who on Monday said that the
government had decided to institute the stringent restrictions beginning
Friday, August 6, as it had anticipated a possible increase in COVID cases due
to the virus' more virulent Delta variant.
Nograles,
co-chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging
Infectious Diseases (IATF), agreed with assessments that the implementation of
the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila was timely, and credited
the vigilant monitoring of COVID variants by the Department of Health (DOH), as
well as the ability of the government to quickly act on its recommendations,
for the appropriate interventions now being implemented to prevent further
increases in the number of cases.
"Given
what we know about the Delta variant, the increases in the cases the past few
days and the increase in the positivity rate were not unexpected, and we
understood that if decisive steps were not taken there would even be more
cases," said Nograles.
Nograles
said "we hope the public recognizes that such steps are necessary at this
point, and that these circuit-breaker quarantines have been proven in the past
to be effective in preventing cases from ballooning."
The
OCTA research group has commended the government for taking swift action to
address the increase in COVID cases, and said that if the decision to implement
the ECQ was delayed to Aug. 15, "NCR would have breached 4,500 new cases
per day, which would likely extend the lockdown and cause more negative impact
on people and the economy."
Nograles
reissued a call he had made at the beginning of the pandemic, appealing to the
public to leave their homes only for essentials.
"Bahay
muna, buhay muna. This is even more important now given how this Delta variant
works," stressed the Palace official.
"At
kung kailangan lumabas, wag kalimutan mag face mask at face shield. With the
cooperation of the public, we were able to reduce the number of cases before
and we were able to loosen the restrictions to allow more economic
activity," he added.
"Nagawa
natin dati sa tulong at kooperasyon ng ating mga kababayan, at magagawa natin
yan muli." ###
