PH on second Covid wave

HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd admitted on Wednesday that the Philippines was now experiencing its second wave of coronavirus infection.

He made the disclosure when asked by Sen.

Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. on the government’s plan should a second wave hit the Philippines.

“Actually nasa second wave tayo.‘Yung first wave na tin nag-ump isa, bat ay po it os a at ing mgabatikang epidemiologist, sometime in

January (We are in the second wave. According to our veteran epidemiologist, the first wave happened sometime in January),” Duque said, referring to the period when the country reported its first three virus cases involving three Chinese from Wuhan.

The Health chief assured the 24-member Senate, meeting on its second day as Committee of the Whole via teleconferencing, that the government was doing everything to flatten the curve.

“Perongayonnasa second wave tayoat gina g aw ap on at inang la hat par an ga ma-fl at ten‘yung epidemic curve at para nang saga non ay mag karo on pot a yong sap at na pa na hon na map aunl and at mai ta as an ga tin gk ak ayah an sa si stem ang pan gk al usu gan .( Now that we are already in the second wave, we are doing everything to flatten the epidemic curve so that we can have the time to further upgrade our healthcare

system),” Duque said.

Epidemiologist John Wong said the country had a “small wave” in January.

“Like the waves of an ocean, there’s a peak and then there’s a trough. For Covid-19, a small wave in January, then a lull, then we had our second wave, first medium wave of more than 10,000,” he said.

The total number of coronavirus cases breached 13,000 on Wednesday as the country reported 27Y new cases. The death tally was 842.

Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan commented that the Philippine death rate is three to four times higher than Malaysia’s, Taiwan’s and Thailand’s.

“Kay a pas en sy ana po kung k ami aymayp ag du du dana na fa flat ten curve atnasa second wave natal agata yo( You have to forgive us if we doubt there is a flattening of the curve and if we are already on the second wave),” Pangilinan told Duque.

Vivencio “Vince” Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the InterAgency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said the country had a testing backlog of 6,500.