Manila experts oppose plan to ease virus curbs

MANILA: Health experts on Tuesday opposed the plan of the President Duterte administration to place the whole country under the less restrictive modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) or lockdown even before it could start the massive vaccination against the coronavirus pandemic.

The opposition arose from the announcement of Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, that Duterte was seriously considering the proposal to impose MGCQ over the whole country starting in March so the government could atend to the increasing number of poor and hungry Filipinos due to the pandemic.

“Now is the time to save our countrymen who are experiencing hunger and poverty,” Roque told an online media briefing. “What is burdensome news is that 23.7 million of our countrymen are already experiencing hunger, 4.5 million more Filipinos are in poverty and 2.7 million have already lost their jobs.”

In this light, Roque said Duterte was seriously considering approval of the proposal of Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua to place the whole country under the more lenient MGCQ with effect from March 1 to allow the reopening of more businesses and for children to leave their homes to go to shopping malls or gaming arcades.

Dr Rontgene Solante, an infectious disease expert, said it was “too early to allow especially teenagers aged 15 to 17 to leave their homes, pointing out that the COVID-19 threat remains with confirmed cases of from 1,000 to 2,000 reported daily.

“But if we allow them to go out of their homes,” Solante argued, “let’s open our schools so they could atend classes and enable us to control their movements.” The government has imposed distance learning and banned face to face classes as a precautionary measure to protect especially young children from COVID-19 infections.

Dr Cynthia Juico, a Philippine Pediatric Society fellow, warned against allowing children to go to shopping malls and gaming arcades, describing them as potential COVID-19 “super spreaders.”

Also opposing the proposal was Ranjit Rye, a fellow of the OCTA research group composed of experts from the state-run University of the Philippines (UP) and the University of Santo Tomas, operated by Dominican priests.

“Easing restrictions should not be arbitrary and premature,” Rye said, pointing out that the country still has to start its nationwide inoculation programme to contain the spread of the virus. He admited a significant drop in COVID-19 cases nationwide but insisted this should not be a reason for health experts and the people to be complacent.