MANILA, Philippines — Reopening the economy at the “pre-COVID-19 levels” is not an option yet, President Duterte said Monday, citing how other nations experienced surge in infections by hastily lifting lockdown measures.
“To open up the economy to pre-COVID-19 levels at this time is not an option because whatever good it can produce will only be gobbled up or be outweighed by the bad it will generate,” Duterte said in his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA).
“Haste makes waste,” he added.
Duterte further noted the recent uptick of coronavirus cases with the shift of most areas to the general community quarantine to aid the ailing economy.
“The recent upsurge of infections when we opened little windows of resumption of business is proof of that.”
COVID-19 cases in the Philippines continue to surge on a daily basis which health authorities attributed largely to the country’s improved testing capacity and the increased contact among the population as a result of the relaxation of quarantine measures to reopen the pandemic-battered economy.
To date, there are 82,040 confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide, including 26,446 recoveries and 1,945 deaths.