COVID surge could have been contained if public was informed early – OCTA

The surge of COVID-19 cases could have been “contained” if the public was made aware “early on” of the country’s situation, an expert from the OCTA Research said Wednesday (March 17).

In the online “Pandesal Forum,” Dr. David Guido said that while the country “could not have prevented” the surge, it could have been contained.

“Perhaps, early on, one of the things that we could have done was made people aware of the situation,” he said.

The expert said “most” Filipinos thought that “things were still okay” throughout the end of February.

“They were just going about their business. So I think we could have informed them that, you know, maybe we need to be more careful. We need to wear face masks, face shields,” David said.

On Feb. 25, the OCTA group reported a rising trend in new cases in Metro Manila.

In the same report, the group said the reproduction number in the National Capital Region increased to 1.32.

“New cases in NCR are expected to increase at least in the short term,” the report added.

The country has logged 631,320 cases as of March 16.