The increasing number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country may continue in the coming days amid Metro Manila shifting to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), said the Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday, Aug. 21.
"Kapag tinignan po natin ang ating mga projections mukhang tataas pa rin po talaga ang mga kaso sa mga susunod na araw (If we look at our projections, it looks like the cases will increase in the coming days)," DOH Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual public briefing.
She said the government continues to address all aspects of pandemic response to prevent a further increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
Vergeire also pointed out that "community quarantine lockdown" is not the only answer to the pandemic.
"Nag-usap po ang ating mga eksperto kasama ng ating iba’t ibang ahensiya on data analytics. Nakita natin na ito pong ginawa nating ECQ compared to our previous ECQs parang hindi magkakaroon ng malaking dent o epekto dun sa tumataas na mga kaso dahil ang dami na pong modifications (Our experts on data analytics had a discussion with various agencies and we realized that this ECQ compared to our previous ECQs may not have a huge dent or effect on the increasing cases because of modifications)," she explained.
"So what we recommended would be MECQ but there should be granular lockdown at kailangan talaga mapukpok natin na tumaas po ang bakunahan (and to push for more vaccinations)," she added.
Based on the DOH projections, Vergeire said that Metro Manila may have at least 66,000 new cases by Aug. 31 and additional 269,000 active cases by Sept. 30 under the MECQ.
"Pero kailangan maintindihan ng ating mga kababayan na projections lang po ito. Ang ipinapasok po sa projections mga assumptions (But our countrymen need to understand that these are just projections. There are assumptions included in the projections)," she explained.
"Kung atin pong mai-improve ang ating vaccination, kung atin pong mai-improve ang ating case detection to isolation at compliance to minimum public health standards beyond dun sa pinasok natin sa assumptions natin ay maipapababa pa po natin ito. Ibig sabihin hindi naman certain na mangyayari iyan kung maiaayos natin ang ating response (If we can improve our vaccination, if we can improve our case detection to isolation, and compliance to minimum public health standards beyond what we have entered into our assumptions, we will be able to lower the number of cases. This means that it is not certain that the projections will happen if we can adjust our response)," she added.