WHO warns against easing COVID-19 rules
MANILA: Aworldhealthorganization(who)official on Thursday warned the Philippines against undertaking “large-scale” easing of restrictions, pointing out that the threat of infections remains a major concern even as the government has yet to start its nationwide inoculation against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“If we go now for large-scale relaxation of measures given the current existing situation, there will be an upsurge of cases and the overreaching of the health (care) system,” Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative to the Philippines, warned in an online forum aired in government TV.
Abeyasinghe noted that the COVID 19 cases in the country, including Metro Manila known officially as the National Capital Region, are still “plateauing” based on data from the Department of Health.
“It has not flatened yet,” he said, “and we still need to be conscious of the fact that there is a relatively high level of transmissions in the community and that the situation is also complicated by the presence of new variants.”
Abeyasinghe was reacting to the proposal of top government officials led by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua as well as Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez for President Duterte to impose nationwide the least restrictive modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) or lockdown by March 1.
This meant, Chua said, the reopening of more businesses and industries like cinemas, tourist spots andthemeparkstoenablethemtohiremoreworkers as well as allowing more public utility vehicles such as commuter buses and jeepneys to operate in the provinces and cities to help revive an economy ravaged by the pandemic.
Also on Thursday, members of the Metro Manila Council, composed of 17 mayors of the 16 cities and one town, voted 9-8, in favor of the proposal supporting the imposition of MGCQ from the more restrictive GCQ (general community quarantine) with effect on March 1.
Mayor Toby Tiangco of suburban Navotas City disclosedthecouncilmembersconductedthevoting aterhearingargumentsfromthecountry’seconomic managers led by Chua and Lopez on the need to adopt the more relaxed MGCQ in Metro Manila during their meeting late on Wednesday night. Tiangco told radio station DZBB that he was one of the eight mayors who opposed the relaxation but he refused to go into further details particularly on the identities of nine of his colleagues who supported the move.
The mayors also supported the proposal to allow only persons aged 15 to 65 to leave their homes as well as the strict implementation of health protocols like the mandatory of face masks and face shields, observance of social distancing and the ban on mass gatherings to contain the spread of the virus, according to Tiangco.