DOH issues warning, says gov’t must prepare for possible ‘July surge’
Public Health

DOH issues warning, says gov’t must prepare for possible ‘July surge’

Apr 14, 2021, 6:26 AM
OpinYon News Team

OpinYon News Team

News Reporter

Health officials warned the public not to be complacent with the dropping number of Covid-19 cases reported, as another surge is still possible once quarantine restrictions are lifted.

Vergerie also warned the public not to be too complacent after the number of Covid-19 cases reported by the agency dropped to 8,571 last Tuesday (April 14), compared to the 12,000 reported over the weekend

INSTEAD of painting a usual rosy picture, the Department of Health (DOH) opted to go the other way and instead warned of possible grim scenario saying that a new wave of Covid-19 cases could start by June or July unless stringent measures were put in place to control the spread of the virus.

During a recent media interview, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergerie said the government must prepare for another surge in a couple of months or even towards the end of the year.

Vergerie made the remark after National Task Force Against COVID-19 and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday warned of another surge in June or July.

“We have to qualify the statement of Secretary Galvez. He was just trying to say that there might be this possibility of another surge in the coming months if we are not going to continuously comply with the protocols and if we are not going to be able to contain the spread of this virus,” the DOH official said, adding that government agencies must ramp up measures to prevent a possible surge.

Vergerie also warned the public not to be too complacent after the number of Covid-19 cases reported by the agency dropped to 8,571 last Tuesday (April 14), compared to the 12,000 reported over the weekend.

What happened, she said, was an “artificial decrease” due to closed testing laboratories during the weekend.

“Yesterday’s numbers at around 8,000 plus was an artificial decrease because during the weekend our laboratories, most of them, some of them are non-operational,” she said. “It is not true that cases are declining.”

Noting that the incubation period for the Covid-19 virus is around 14 days or two weeks, Vergerie said the effects of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) imposed over the NCR plus Bubble since July 29 may be felt “10 to 14 days from now.”

The DOH official expressed hope that the numbers will decline next week following the government’s decision to reimpose strict lockdown in Metro Manila and its adjacent provinces.

The Duterte administration has downgraded the quarantine classification to a modified ECQ until April 30. (ONT)

Tags: #Covid19, #Covid19surge, #enhancedcommunityquarantine, #DepartmentofHealth


We take a stand
OpinYon News logo

Designed and developed by Simmer Studios.

© 2024 OpinYon News. All rights reserved.