The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) should be “more prudent” in declaring a second wave of coronavirus infections, an infectious disease expert said today.
“To me, making an absolute statement of certainty about second waves is unwise…I think we need to be more prudent when we describe second waves or third waves because it can cause more psychological problems,” Benjamin Co, chief of infectious diseases of pediatrics at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital said in an interview on cable news show ANC.
“We’re already in a situation where a lot of people are not really comfortable being locked down for a certain period of time, so we try to choose the terms that the public can understand…instead of using terms that are generally more frightful,” Co added.
Read: Second wave of COVID-19 infections ‘actually’ here, says PH Health Secretary
His statement comes shortly after DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III yesterday unceremoniously announced that the country is currently riding its second wave of infections, citing that the first wave happened in January, beginning with the three infected Chinese nationals from Wuhan. For weeks, the country’s recorded cases stood at a mere three, then a string of new cases was reported daily a month after. The country’s COVID-19 cases currently stand at 13,211.
“The theory of pandemics is always murky,” Co said, adding, “I think the reason why [Duque] said that…their basis is there were a few cases in the beginning, and there was a lull in the middle, and with the lull in the middle, there was all of a sudden an increase in patients sometime in the middle of March after almost a month.”
Co added that a lot of factors may have contributed to the lull in cases, including “not testing enough, not enough contact tracing, [and] there were no cases being reported because people were not really aware” of COVID-19 and its symptoms yet.
“In short, the lull in cases and the [rise of] cases in March may have been a continuum,” Co said, implying that the Philippines is still riding its first wave of infections.
Co also questioned what DOH did after the alleged first wave.
“If they felt that the first wave was the first three cases sometime in January. What were the measures instituted by the health authorities so that that first wave will not go into a second wave? We would not be here in this scenario if they had not put measures in place,” he said.
Read: ‘I don’t understand’: Health Secretary Duque baffled by senators’ calls for resignation
The WHO declared COVID-19 a matter of international public health emergency on Jan. 30, on the same day that the Philippines recorded its first confirmed coronavirus case.
In mid-April, more than a dozen lawmakers called for Duque’s resignation over his supposed less-than-ideal handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Rodrigo Duterte ignored their demands and said that he trusted the health secretary and ordered Duque to stay in his post.
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