UP expert: Full reopening of economy not yet recommended once PH flattens COVID curve

Quarantine life in Pasig City. FILE PHOTO/
Niño Jesus Orbeta/Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — Even if the Philippines flattens its curve of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, it is still not recommended to fully reopen the economy as this only marks the beginning of the country’s recovery, a researcher from the University of the Philippines (UP) said Wednesday.

The UP OCTA Research Team earlier said the Philippines could flatten the curve of its infections by the end of August or September.

“We don’t necessarily recommend na fully reopening the economy because this is just the start of the recovery process, yung pag-flatten ng curve,” UP OCTA Research Team’s Dr. Guido David said in a televised briefing.

“And hindi ibig sabihin pag sinabi natin nagfflatten na yung curve, irreversible siya. The trend can always reverse, we can always have another surge if we’re not careful, that’s why we should be careful,” David cautioned.

(When we flatten the curve, it does not mean that this is irreversible. The trend can always reverse, we can always have another surge if we’re not careful, that’s why we should be careful.)

David noted that reopening the economy should be carefully evaluated so as to not repeat the “past mistakes” when several areas of the country shifted to general community quarantine (GCQ).

“We learned from our past mistakes siguro nang una tayo nagkaroon ng GCQ, nagka-surge because there were things na hindi natin na-anticipate. Yung infectivity ng virus. So right now, I think we’re better prepared for that but we still have to be very very careful about not letting this get out of control,” David said.

(…maybe when we first had GCQ, there was a surge because there were things that we did not anticipate. The ineffectivity of the virus…)

The UP OCTA Research Team earlier said it observed a decrease in the r-naught or the number of new infections estimated to stem from a single case of the disease in Metro Manila.

COVID-19 cases in the Philippines has reached 197,164 with 3,038 deaths and 132,396 recoveries.