Health expert OK with raising Metro Manila to Alert Level 2

MANILA, Philippines — If raising Metro Manila to Alert Level 2 will help the public to become more conscious about COVID-19 transmission and the possibility of another surge, then the government should do that, infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said Monday.

The Department of Health earlier raised the possibility of escalating the alert system to Level 2 in Metro Manila amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

The raising of alert levels will help strengthen the implementation of mitigating measures so that the situation will not be critical, said Solante during Malacañang’s Laging Handa public briefing.

“If there is an indication that we have to enhance or increase the alert level so that everyone will also be conscious about the status na talagang tumaas ang kaso then we should do that,” he said.

“Para at least to strengthen our implementation of what is important in mitigating para hindi tayo magiging critical level,” he added.

(So that we can strengthen our implementation of mitigating measures to avoid being in a critical level.)

Solante said that it is important to continue monitoring the region’s health care utilization rate amid the uptick in cases.

“We need to protect the health care viability ng healthcare natin because once we see na nakikita natin ang pagtaas ng kaso  and at the same time, marami rin ang na-admit dahil sa dami ng kaso then that is something na medyo hindi maganda,” he said.

(We need to protect our health care viability because the situation will not be good once we see an uptick of cases, coupled with a rise in admitted cases.)

He said communities must strengthen its isolation and detection of COVID-19 cases to further prevent the escalation of the COVID-19 transmission.

“If we have the antiviral agent, sana very accessible ito so we can also continue to protect the vulnerable population to prevent them from getting the severe infection at hindi mapupuno ang mga hospital,” he said.

(If we have the antiviral agent, which I hope is very accessible so that we can also continue to protect the vulnerable population to prevent them from getting severe infections and our hospitals will not fill up.)

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