Galvez: ‘No home quarantine’ policy may lower number of new COVID cases 

MANILA, Philippines — National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday raised the possibility of bringing down new COVID-19 cases to single-digit level if a “no home quarantine” policy for coronavirus patients will be implemented.

Earlier, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the government is looking into implementing “no home quarantine” for COVID-19 patients to avoid transmission among household members.

“Kasi nakita po natin, sa Region 3, Region 4-A, Manila and even yung experience sa Navotas at Pateros, nung tinanggal natin ang home quarantine sa mga area na yun, nakita natin na talagang bumaba ang mga kaso po doon sa area na yun,” Galvez said in a televised briefing.

(We saw that in Region 3, Region 4-A, Manila, Navotas and Pateros, when we removed [the option of] home quarantine, there was a significant decrease in the number of new cases in these areas.)

“Kung magkakaroon tayo ng aggressive isolation ng mga positive cases at mahihiwalay po natin sa community, pati po yung contact ng mga positive cases mahiwalay po natin agad, malaki ang chances na bababa, hindi lang po magplaplateau but bababa po ang cases into single digit number,” he added.

(If we will have an aggressive isolation of positive cases and separate them from the community, and if we also separate the contact of positive cases, chances are big that cases will not only plateau, but will decrease into single-digit numbers.)

Earlier, Galvez attributed the coronavirus transmission to home quarantine of COVID-19 patients.

The Philippines has so far recorded 238,727 COVID-19 infections, with 3,890 deaths and 184,906 recoveries.

JPV