OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David on Monday, July 19, urged the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to consider reimposing an order preventing children from going outdoors due to the threat of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
David cited as an example the spread of Delta variant in the United Kingdom (UK).
"Nung nagka-surge sila ng Delta variant, in fact, 98 percent ng cases nila sa UK ngayon ay Delta variant, ang maraming nahawaan ng COVID ay yung mga hindi pa bakunado saka yung mga bata kasi nakakalabas na yung mga bata (When they had a surge in Delta variant cases because 98 percent of their cases in the UK today are Delta variants, most of those infected with COVID are those who have not been vaccinated and the children who have been allowed to go out)," David said in a PTV interview on Monday.
"Ibig sabihin posible talagang tamaan yung mga bata ng coronavirus kaya medyo concerned tayo na ngayon hinayaan nating makalabas yung mga bata kahit nasa outdoors sila may threat pa rin yun (This means that the children can be infected by the coronavirus, so we are a bit concerned that we have now allowed the children to go out. Even if they are outdoors, there is still a threat of infection)," he added.
On July 9, the IATF has allowed children aged five and above to go outdoors in areas under general community quarantine and modified GCQ, as long as the areas are not under "heightened restrictions."
"Yun sana yung gusto natin para hindi na natin kailangan hintayin na magkaroon ng surge kasi pag dumating yung surge parang magugulat na lang tayo tulad ng nangyari noong February (That is what we are hoping for, to withdraw the order allowing children to go out. We must not wait for another surge to come because when the surge comes, we will be surprised like what happened in February 2021)," David said.
David noted that the COVID-19 situation in Metro Manila back in February was manageable when a sudden surged in cases was seen in Pasay City.
"Maganda yung situation natin tapos bigla na lang nagka-surge sa Pasay hanggang hindi na natin mapigilan (Our situation was good and then we suddenly saw a surge in Pasay until we could no longer stop it)," David pointed out.
He asked the IATF to re-implement the "NCR Plus" bubble policy over Metro Manila, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, and Cavite to prevent the local transmission of Delta variant.
"Ang purpose niya dati para hindi lumabas ang virus ngayon para hindi makapasok yung virus in a way border control na rin siya para sa NCR Plus (The purpose of this before was to prevent the virus from coming out but now this will prevent the virus from entering, in a way border control for the NCR Plus)," David said.
"Hindi natin alam kung kailan mangyayari ito at saan manggagaling. Kaya the soonest possible time kung meron tayong mga i-implement, kailangan iimplement na natin (We do not know when a surge will happen and where it will come from. So if we are planning to implement strict restriction measures, we have to implement it the soonest possible time)," he said.
"Wag na natin hihintayin na magkaroon ng surge kasi alam natin na may local case na ng Delta variant (Let's not wait for another surge because we know that there is already a local case of the Delta variant here)," he added.