Palace notes PH’s ‘gains’ vs COVID-19 despite continued increase in cases

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Tuesday said the Philippines is making “gains” in its fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) even as the confirmed cases of the viral illness continues to swell on a daily basis.

According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, the majority of the areas in the country are now under the most lenient modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), which he said is an indication that the country is making strides in its fight against the infectious respiratory disease.

“Karamihan po ng ating mga probinsya ngayon ay nasa MGCQ at kakaunti nalang po ang nasa GCQ (general community quarantine), isa ang nasa ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) and isa ang nasa MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine). So ibig sabihin po nagkakaroon naman tayo ng gains laban dito sa COVID-19,” Roque said in a televised press briefing.

(Most of our provinces are now under MGCQ, a few are under GCQ, one is under ECQ and another one is under MECQ. So that means that we’re making gains against COVID-19.)

“’Yung doubling rate nga po sa buong Pilipinas umaabot na ng sampung araw. Ang ating mortality rate ay under 10 na daily. So importanteng bagay po ‘yan na nagpapatunay na gumana ‘yung ating lockdown at dahil gumana nga po ang ating lockdown sigurado po kami na itong ginawa natin na naman sa Cebu City at Talisay ay gagana pa rin,” he added.

(The doubling rate in the whole Philippines is now up to ten days. Our mortality rate is also under ten daily. So these are important details that prove that our lockdown works and since our lockdown is working, we are sure what we will do again in Cebu City and Talisay will still work.)

The rest of the country is either under MGCQ or GCQ—the two most relaxed classification of the government’s community quarantine measures—until June 30 except for Cebu City and Talisay City which are both placed under strict quarantine measures.

The government’s decision to maintain eased lockdown restrictions came even as the Department of Health (DOH) continues to report a surge in COVID-19 cases daily, although it is claiming that the increase is due to the country’s improved testing capacity and its aggressive validation of case backlogs.

Currently, there are 26,420 COVID-19 cases nationwide, including 6,252 recoveries and 1,098 deaths.

While Cebu City recently observed an increase in new infections, Roque said that Metro Manila remains to be the epicenter of the contagion in the country.

Of the country’s total cases, 13,694 or nearly 52 percent were recorded in Metro Manila, which is currently under GCQ.