DOH: No need for Metro lockdown
MANILA, Philippines — The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country has risen to 24.
This was announced last night by President Duterte at a press briefing at Malacanang.
Duterte said the latest patients who tested positive for the disease came from West Crame in San Juan, Santa Maria in Bulacan and Project 6 in Quezon City.
He did not provide details about one of the patients.
“In the Philippines, it’s not that much...24 as of last count. But the infection, the transmission is going and there are new cases...20 plus four, it’s 24. So that is how bad it is,” he said.
He, however, expressed optimism that all the COVID-19 patients in the country would get well.
“Hindi ito magtatagal (It won’t last). I am confident that we will survive this contagion,” Duterte said.
He also agreed that it is premature to lock down Metro Manila, saying that a lockdown would make it hard for supplies to enter the affected areas in the country.
“We have not reached that kind of contamination,” he said.
Earlier, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that there were 20 cases of COVID-19 in the country, doubled within hours from 10 to 20, but it maintained that there is no need for a lockdown in Metro Manila.
There is no official lockdown order yet from any of Metro Manila’s city and municipal mayors but most of them have ordered the suspension of classes at all levels in their respective jurisdictions.
Duterte held a closed-door meeting last night with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), which was also attended by Metro Manila mayors.
“It might be premature to do it at this point. So we will have to wait until evidence of sustained community transmission is presented – that will trigger the community lockdown or community quarantine, which is one of the interventions as reflected in our protocol,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said at an earlier press briefing in Malacañang.
“These are some of the options being considered. But it might be premature at this point. However, let me just reiterate that we have to respect the local chief executives’ decision to suspend classes and that must be followed by all concerned,” he added.
President Duterte declared a state of public health emergency over the weekend.
Metro Manila cities that have suspended classes are Manila, Caloocan, Marikina and Pasay. Cainta, Rizal also suspended classes.
The Senate also suspended work today until tomorrow. “Except for those who want to have committee hearings, you may do so at your own risk,” said Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda has called for a weeklong lockdown of Metro Manila to contain the spread of COVID-19, saying the government should be ready to do everything to avoid the spread of the illness.
Salceda has also proposed the suspension of work and classes in the National Capital Region, the cancellation of bus trips and domestic flights and the closure of the North Luzon Expressway, South Luzon Expressway and the railways.
The emergence of cases of local transmission has prompted the health department to recommend to Duterte the declaration of a state of public health emergency throughout the Philippines.
The declaration is contained in Proclamation No. 922 signed by the President last Sunday but released to the media only yesterday.
Briefing reporters, Duque also stressed that the national and local governments should consolidate reports they are relaying to the public to avoid confusion.
He said all information should come from the DOH because the agency has access to information concerning COVID-19 patients.
“We have to review again our reporting protocols and see how we can align them with the LGU’s reporting protocols. We will harmonize them so that the people won’t think that the reports of the LGUs are different from the ones reported by the DOH earlier,” Duque said. “So we will just harmonize, we will do the review and alignment.”
No community transmission
At the same press briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire maintained that there is still no community transmission of the infection that will necessitate a lockdown of certain areas in the country.
“Now we are seeing more positive cases because of the intensified surveillance and we have observed that some of these cases have had history of travel to countries affected by the COVID epidemic,” Vergeire said.
“(But) as of this time, we are still getting information and have yet to determine whether these new cases are epidemiologically linked,” Vergeire added.
She said the DOH has already deployed teams to visit the 10 new cases and start tracing people they had come into contact with.
According to Vergeire, they would soon release information on where the 10 new COVID cases are confined but it will be the LGUs that will make any announcement as to where the patients are residing.
Vergeire said the DOH is closely coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other stakeholders to immediately identify – and isolate if needed – anyone who had contact with the 10 new positive cases.
The four other cases reported earlier, Vergeire said, are still confined in different hospitals.
Duque said he has read medical journals stating that the virus that causes COVID-19 is difficult to cure when the temperature is low.
“If that is true, then we should rejoice that summer is just around the corner. It will mean more sweat, more perspiration, but we don’t mind. The trade-off is well worth it,” the health chief said.
Duque also confirmed that the Philippines would be acquiring testing kits from China, where the COVID-19 originated.
“I just sent a text message to my staff to call up the Chinese ambassador so that I will be able to personally request on behalf of the Philippine government as many testing kits they can provide us,” Duque said.
“This would be very good, provided that there’s going to be the WHO experts through its emergency use list that will validate the effectiveness of such a testing kit,” he added.
Duque noted that it is important to ensure that the results that would come out from the testing kits are accurate.
“It’s going to be scary if you have false negatives. You say a person is negative but he ends up being positive. And then, you know, you let them go, thinking they’re OK. So we have to be very cautious about this,” Duque said.
32 contacts
Meanwhile, San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora said at least 32 individuals had come into contact with the first recorded case of local transmission – a 62-year-old male without history of foreign travel. He was the fifth case overall.
Contact tracing procedures found that the 32 individuals were mostly employees and healthcare professionals of Cardinal Santos Medical Center, where the patient sought treatment.
“Through contact tracing, there are currently persons under monitoring. But so far, no one has tested positive from these hospital employees who came in contact with the patient,” Zamora told reporters.
He also said business has been bad at Greenhills Shopping Center since the release of the report that the man had frequented a prayer room in the area.
“The small number of people visiting the shopping center was very evident. We did not order it closed, but citizens have probably decided to stay away,” Zamora added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said there is no assurance that the virus that causes COVID-19 would disappear during summer.
“We don’t believe that this virus will disappear like the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus with the increase in ambient temperatures. What we have seen more recently is not supportive of that,” said WHO Philippines representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe at a press briefing also at Malacañang.
“We are seeing continuing transmission in very tropical countries like Singapore, Malaysia. And so, the evidence we have at this point is not supportive of that,” he said. – Neil Jayson Servallos, Delon Porcalla, Ghio Ong, Emmanuel Tupas, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Rey Galupo, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Romina Cabrera, Edith Regalado
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