A discussion over the massive turnout of locally stranded individuals at the Rizal Memorial stadium over the weekend is set when the interagency task force meets Tuesday, the Department of Health said Monday, July 27.
The incident, which showed a crowd of stranded individuals crammed inside the stadium to avail of the government’s free transportation back to their home provinces, has been relayed to specific agencies and prompted a discussion among officials of the task force handling coronavirus disease, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
“Nakakalungkot na nangyayari ang mga ganito (It’s saddening that things like this are happening) inspite of all of our reminders. Bagaman meron na tayong protocols sa mass gathering pero nangyayari pa din ito (This happened even protocols on mass gatherings have been set),” Rosario said.
“Kaya lang kailangan din natin maintindihan that these locally stranded individuals inaayos kasi natin sila. Ino-organized para makauwi na sila sa kani-kanilang mga lugar (But we also need to understand that they were being gathered there so they can finally go back home),” the undersecretary added.
The Health department, however, emphasized that government-supervised gatherings like this must still be implemented with health protocols set to prevent the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, the interagency task force will also discuss the future restrictions in Metro Manila.
The health official said they have been studying whether to remain under general community quarantine or revert to modified enhanced community quarantine using various indicators like case doubling time of the disease and other health indicators, economic, and social security.
“Pinagaaralan (itong pag-revert ng MECQ). In the past week, the sub-technical working group of the interagency task force have been studying this. Tomorrow they will already present to the IATF the decision for this coming two weeks,” Vergeire said.
Cases of the dreaded disease have been constantly increasing since Metro Manila eased its quarantine restrictions, which according to the DOH, is expected as “due to the mobility of the population.”
The country’s testing capacity, including testing of asymptomatic, and expanded testing protocol are cited as among the reasons behind the growing cases.