The Department of Health (DOH) said it observed an upward trend of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Metro Manila amid the threat of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.
“Dito sa NCR (National Capital Region), tumaas tayo ng mga 47 percent itong linggong ito compared doon sa nakaraang linggo (Here in NCR, the cases rose by 47 percent this week compared to the previous week),” said DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III during a televised press briefing on Tuesday, July 27.
“Sa NCR kasi ngayon nasa a little over 900 cases per day tayo the past week (In NCR, we have had a little over 900 cases per day the past week),” he added.
Duque said this trend should serve as a “wake up” call to the different local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila to intensify their efforts against COVID-19.
“Patuloy ang aming pakikipag ugnayan sa mga local government units, sa mga kinatawan ng pribadong sektor, na talagang bantayan ito at talagang gawin ang lahat ng makakaya para maputol ang kadena ng hawaan (We are coordinating with local government units and representatives of the private sector to really monitor this and really do everything possible to break the chain of transmission),” said the Health chief.
“Kinakailangan na gawin ang lahat para hindi magpatuloy. Nagsimula ng tumataas ang mga kaso. So yung talagang aggressive active case finding, community testing, contact tracing....at agressive isolation. Ito pa rin ang napatunayan na solusyon para maibsan ang patuloy na pagtaas ng mga kaso (Everything needs to be done so that the rise in cases will not continue. Cases have started to rise. aggressive active case finding, community testing, contact tracing ... and aggressive isolation. These are proven solutions to stop the increasing number of cases),” he added.
Duque said it is best to assume that there is already a community transmission of the Delta variant. The community transmission, however, should still be established by the local health experts, he added.
“Ang importante ‘wag na tayong maghintay ng resulta na iyon. Kumilos na tayo. Tumugon na tayo as if meron na talaga tayong local and community transmission (The important thing is that we do not wait for that result. Let's already act. We have to respond as if we really have local and community transmission),” he said.
Duque also agreed with the Octa Research Group’s recommendation to implement a “circuit breaker” lockdown or to tighten some restrictions. However, this should still be discussed by the members of the Interagency Task Force (IATF).
“Titingnan natin kasi ang IATF naman ginagabayan ito ng ating mga experts....at pinag-aaralan ang mga sariwang datos at mula dito nagbibigay ng rekomendasyon (We will look at this as the IATF is guided by our experts ... and we study the latest data. From there, we give recommendations),” he said.