Infectious Disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante during a Laging Handa press briefing. Screengrab from PCOO / Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — An infectious disease expert on Monday retracted his earlier statement, saying it is not yet the right time to lift the public state of emergency for COVID-19 in the country.
Dr. Rontgene Solante on June 1 said it was high time to remove the “emergency” label on COVID-19 in the country due to the persistent low number of infections then.
However, two weeks after, he retracted this after the Philippines saw an uptick of COVID-19 cases, owing to the several Omicron subvariants.
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“With the threat of these variants of concern, especially these 3 variants of concern (BA.4, BA.5, BA.2.12.1) which is globally rising in terms of prevalence, I think this is not the right time yet to lift the public state of emergency,” Solante said in a Laging Handa briefing.
This is especially if the continued implementation of the public state of emergency will give the Philippines “more leeway” in implementing mitigating measures.
“If the public state of emergency will give us more leeway to implement the mitigating recommendations and policy para lang hindi lalaki ‘yung mga kaso, hindi tataas ‘yung mga kaso (so that cases would not increase), then I would agree that we will still be in a state of public emergency,” he said.
The Philippines has recorded 308 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the highest daily tally in almost two months, or since April 20.
This increased the number of active COVID cases in the country to 2,918, of which 153 are from Metro Manila.
Solante also said he agrees with escalating Metro Manila to Alert Level 2 to help the public to be more conscious about COVID-19 transmission.
He, however, clarified that the uptick of cases is not yet something to be worried about since the Philippines have experience and knowledge in dealing with the increase of infections.