The Philippines should take note of the warnings from other countries with surge in infections due to the Delta variant, the OCTA Research said Thursday, July 29.
OCTA fellow Prof. Guido David said that the National Capital Region (NCR) is “at its early stages” of a surge, noting that the region’s reproduction number climbed to 1.35.
“We have to take this variant seriously. In fact, parang may warning na nga tayo kung ano nangyari sa India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam (we already had a warning of what it can do in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam),” David said in an interview over DZMM.
“Sana sinusunod natin ang mga warnings na nakikita natin sa ibang bansa (Hopefully, we will heed the warnings we have seen in other countries),” he added.
Not being alarmist
David said that the independent research group was only presenting the data and not being alarmist when it flagged the rising number of infections in Metro Manila amid the threat of the highly contagious variant.
“Sa palagay ko, hindi naman kami alarmist. Binibigay namin ang numbers, at yung projections namin based din sa science (I don't think we're being alarmists. We just present the numbers, and our projections are also based on science),” he said.
“Kung nakikita natin yung posibleng mangyari, siyempre dapat may gawin tayo (If we can see what could possibly happen, of course we must do something),” he added.
He noted that the numbers and projections that the group presents were the result of its analysis of the data coming from the Department of Health (DOH).
MECQ ‘flexi’
Meanwhile, the expert said that the government may consider imposing a “flexible” modified enhance community quarantine (MECQ) in the metropolis to prevent the spread of the variant and stem the rising number of cases.
“Pwede naman pag-usapan kahit yung MECQ o MECQ flexi,” David said, noting that some businesses have expressed their support of imposing a flexible MECQ in NCR.
“Pwede naman tayong maging creative sa strategies natin. Pwede din naman hard lockdown kung iyan ang gusto ng national government (We can be creative with our strategies. Hard lockdown is also possible if that is what the national government wants),” he added.