Palace asks OCTA to desist from making public recommendations on three week lockdown

[ASEAN NOW News]

OCTA Research fellow Guido David clarified last night that they did not propose a three-week hard lockdown, which Malacañang said is unadvisable as more people will go hungry.

 

An armed police officer implements a seven-day granular lockdown in Block 41, Zones 4, 5, and 9, Barangay Addition Hills, Mandaluyong City on March 12, 2021, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Photo by Michael Varcas, The Philippine STAR

 

According to a One News report, imposing a three-week hard lockdown on COVID-19 hotspots is not practical because the government is preventing a rise not just in the number of infections, but also the number of people who are hungry, Malacañang said on Thursday, Sept. 2.

 

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque was reacting to a supposed recommendation by OCTA Research to impose the strict measure in areas with a high number of COVID-19 cases as the rapid increase in infections threatened to overwhelm the country’s healthcare system.

 

The Philippines posted a record-high 22,366 new infections last Monday, Aug. 30, but officials claim the number is within the government’s projections.

 

But OCTA fellow Guido David clarified on Thursday night that they did not propose a three-week hard lockdown.

He said he was surprised that OCTA was quoted to have made the recommendation, which even reached Malacañang.

 

David explained his statements in one interview was taken out of context.

 

David told One PH that what they recommended was the extension of modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) for two weeks to avert further increase in COVID-19 cases.

 

President spokesperson says No Lockdown

 

At a press briefing on Thursday, Roque said “for now,” the three-week hard lockdown could not be imposed because “we do not want the number of hungry people to increase.”

 

“We are aiming for total health. Reduce the number of cases and reduce the number of people who are hungry,” Roque said.

 

He added that the government is continuously working to ensure there would be enough hospitals for severe and critical cases.

 

“As of now, even if our ICU (intensive care unit) beds (in Metro Manila) are at critical level, they are not completely filled up and we expect that since almost half of the population of Metro Manila have been vaccinated, even if the numbers increase, they would just be like the common cold,” he pointed out.

 

As of Sept. 1, about 71% of ICU beds, 66% of isolation beds, 73% of ward beds, and 60% of ventilators in Metro Manila were in use. For the entire Philippines, the utilization rate is 73% for ICU beds, 66% for isolation beds, 71% for ward beds, and 55% for ventilators.

 

High-risk classification

 

Alethea de Guzman, director of the health department’s epidemiological bureau, said the Philippines remains under high-risk classification.

 

“It is important as individuals to implement minimum public health standards especially in areas with high-risk transmission and these are the three Cs—areas that are closed, crowded and those with high chances of having close contacts,” De Guzman explained.

 

“Now that we have a high number of cases, the goal is to insure, to minimize the number of severe and critical cases and to reduce the number of fatalities,” she said.

 

Citing the projections of modeling tool FASSSTER, Roque said the Philippines would post between 20,000 to 37,500 daily cases if a two-week lockdown and a two-week modified enhanced community quarantine are implemented.

 

He added that if the quarantine restrictions are not enforced, the country would log at least 125,000 cases per day.

 

OCTA also said earlier that while the new COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila are expected to continue rising in the next few weeks, the growth would be slower due to the recent decrease in the region’s reproductive number.

 

Citing data from the Department of Health, it noted that Metro Manila had an average of 4,637 new cases per day from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, up by 12% from the 4,147 average daily new cases in the preceding week.

 

The region had a reproduction number of 1.39, down from as high as 1.9 reported last month. This indicator measures the number of people a positive individual can infect.

 

“Based on current trends, it is possible that the reproduction number in the National Capital Region may decrease below 1.0 by the third week of September,” the group said. “Until then, we should expect new cases to continue to increase, albeit at a slower growth rate.”

 

During this period, Metro Manila had an average daily attack rate of 33.2 new cases per 100,000 population.

Six local government units also have below critical reproduction number: Pasay, Las Piñas, Valenzuela, Manila, Caloocan, and Quezon City.