A stricter and more stringent enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) can be reinforced again if public cannot adhere to new protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Although he understood why Filipinos immediately grabbed the chance to go outside and return to their ‘normal’ routine, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque iterated that lack of discipline may lead to increase in transmission of the virus and a spike in the current cases of COVID-19.
“Kung lahat tayo ay lalabas ng ganyan kadami at hindi mag-o-observe ng social distancing, unang-una babalik po tayo sa ECQ. Kung ayaw niyo po bumalik, puwede ba ho bawasan na yung paglabas. Marami talaga hahawa ng Covid-19,” he said in a virtual presser on Monday.
[If all of us will go out and fail to observe social distancing, we will return to ECQ. If you don’t want to return to ECQ, avoid going outside. More will spread the coronavirus]
This will directly impact the Department of Health’s goal of ‘flattening the curve’.
“Pag dumami po yung nagksakit ng Covid-19, makikita niyo po limitado lang po ang mga kama sa ating mga ospital,” he said.
[If more people get infected with Covid-19, you’ll see we only have limited beds in hospitals.]
As of May 16, the country only has 13,457 total bed capacity for COVID-19 patients in Metro Manila.
Despite this, Roque did not question the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF-EID) decision to allow the transition from ECQ to MECQ.
“Hindi naman po kasi talagang after two months gaya ng buong daigdig kinakailangan naman natin buksan ng bahagya ang ating ekonomiya,” Roque defended the body.
[I don’t think it was a mistake because after a two-month quarantine, just like the rest of the world, we would have to partially open our economy].
