ALBAY Rep. Joey Salceda on Monday recommended a two-week extension of the Luzon-wide enhance community quarantine (ECQ), citing quantitative and scientific evidence which he said suggest that the Philippines is not yet in “a point of justified confidence.”
Salceda, chair of the committee on ways and means, noted that the country has only so far undertaken around 46,000 tests, with possibly another 80,000 coming by April 30, the last day of the ECQ.
Thus, with only 130,000 tests or 0.1 percent of population, Salceda said it is possible that many positive cases, especially asymptomatic cases, remain undetected.
As of April 16, out of 5,660 confirmed cases, health authorities have only assessed only 3,238 out of 7,496 possible close contacts of the positive patients.
“Doubling time for infections hovers at just above 12 days. Thus, lifting the ECQ amounts to carelessly exposing the entire population to infection, no matter what residual social distancing (is enforced),” said Salceda, a co-chair of the economic stimulus cluster of the Defeat COVID-19 committee.
Salceda noted that there are about 1.9 billion social contacts in the Philippines daily and the ECQ, despite all the rule breakers, must have eliminated 80 percent of it or a reduction of 1.5 billion.
“When we allow a big swathe of social contacts exposed to an epidemic with doubling time of 12 days, we would simply overwhelm their nascent capacities, opening the margin for mistakes even if clerical with manifold adverse consequences. Worse than this, our healthcare system is at risk of unraveling under the weight of the volumes putting at risk other morbidities. And in the medium term under such scenario, the consequences on consumer confidence would be aggravated,” he said.
“We thus need to reduce infectiousness before exposing the population, so that we can catch, trace and isolate within capacity,” he added.
On suggestions that policymakers have to choose between health or the economy, Salceda said this is a “mischaracterization of the trade-off and a short-sighted assessment of the situation, too.”
“The idea that we are choosing between economic damage and health damage is misguided. We are trying to minimize both. At this rate, opening up the county and hoping that we will not have to lock it down again is wishful thinking. Let’s finish the job now, when we are already building on some successes, rather than erase those gains and then face a second wave later,” he said.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said President Duterte has yet to decide whether to extend, expand, fully or partially lift the ECQ which will end on April 30.
The President met with health experts on Monday, as members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) discussed what government should do in a post-lockdown scenario.
Health experts who met with Duterte were former health secretaries Rep. Janet Garin, Esperanza Cabral, Jaime Galvez Tan, Susan Mercado, Anthony Leachon, Ana Lisa Ong Lim, Marissa Alejandria, Katherine Ann Reyes, and Alfredo Mahar Lagmay.
Also present during the meeting were Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Speaker Alan Cayetano, incumbent Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. and acting Planning Secretary Karl Kendrik Chua.
Nograles said the IATF started its meeting at 9 am on Monday and was hopeful that a consensus will be arrived at and a final recommendation would be submitted to Duterte with regards the lockdown issue.
