PHL can’t copy Singapore’s Covid drive; LGUS warned

AN official of the Department of Health (DOH) reminded local government officials not to breach quarantine protocols, saying any violation “might be detrimental” to the country and the population.

Health Underscretary Maria Rosario Vergeire gave the reminder when asked for a reaction to the statement of Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia on July 13 that they “will take a cue” from Singapore, which announced it will soon “fundamentally change” how it manages the pandemic: i.e., treat Covid-19 like other endemic diseases such as flu. News reports stated that soon in Singapore: There will be no goals of zero transmission; they will dump quarantine for travelers and close contacts of cases will not have to isolate. It also plans to no longer announce daily case numbers.

“We cannot compare the Philippines with any other country in the world,” Vergeire said at the weekend, noting that the Philippines has a bigger population compared to Singapore.

Vergeire added that Singapore has high vaccination rates.

“Owing to these kind of factors or considerations, we cannot change our direction [Covid response] at the moment. Here in the Philippines, we are an archipelago,” she said in a mix of Filipino and English.

She added: “It is still hard to manage and declare that the disease is endemic and we would be easing our restrictions.” She stressed that more evidence is needed to declare that a certain disease is endemic.

“We are urging our LGUS to unite with us, with our protocols that we are implementing, for this should be a whole-of-government approach, wherein we are implementing a uniform protocol,” Vergeire reiterated, speaking partly in Filipino.

Covid cases

AS of Sunday, the DOH logged 5,411 additional Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,507,755.

There were also 5,439 recoveries and 117 deaths.

Of the total number of infections, 3.1 percent (47,190) are active cases, 95.1 percent (1,433,851) have recovered, 1.77 percent (26,714) have died.

Fifteen duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 10 are recoveries and 1 is a death.

Moreover, 82 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.