Photo: Department of Health / FB" width="100%" />
Weeks after politicians and experts cautioned against a second wave of coronavirus infections if the government was to reopen the capital, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III today said that the second wave, is in fact already here.
“Actually, we’re now on the second wave,” Duque said in a virtual hearing on the government’s COVID-19 response.
“Based on our expert epidemiologists, the first wave happened sometime in January when we had three [COVID-19] cases from Chinese nationals from Wuhan,” Duque explained, referring to the first batch of infections, beginning with three imported cases which were first detected in Jan. 30. For weeks, the country’s recorded cases stood at a mere three, then a string of new cases were reported daily a month after.
Four months later, and as of this afternoon, COVID-19 cases now stand at 13,221, with 842 deaths and 2,932 recoveries.
“Now that we’re on the second wave, we’re doing everything we can to flatten the epidemic curve, so that we’ll have time develop and improve the health system, to ramp up the health system’s capacity,” Duque said.
Read: Are we flattening the curve? Health Dep’t says PH has low COVID-19 cases
Earlier this month, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire claimed that the Philippines was flattening the curve of cases, despite a report from a U.S.-based organization showing the opposite.
Yesterday, Duterte Spokesman Harry Roque said that President Rodrigo Duterte’s government is still not ready to conduct mass testing for the coronavirus, after two months of lockdown and billions in pesos spent. The government is instead leaving the responsibility to the private sector.
Metro Manila and other high risk areas have been placed on lockdown or under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) since March 17 to curb the spread of the pandemic. The government has downgraded the quarantine into a “modified” ECQ which started over the weekend, and is expected to end on May 31. This has allowed some industries, including malls to partially reopen, provided they practice social distancing and follow health protocols imposed by the government.
Spoiler alert: some of them didn’t.
