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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Weak gov't pandemic response? Roque tells critics: 'I'm sorry you're wrong'

Weak gov't pandemic response? Roque tells critics: 'I'm sorry you're wrong'

Published Aug 3, 2021 05:07 pm

The government is neither weak nor reactive in addressing the public health emergency arising from the coronavirus pandemic, Malacañang insisted on Tuesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte presides over a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members prior to his talk to the people at the Malacañang Golf (Malago) Clubhouse in Malacañang Park, Manila on August 2, 2021. (Malacañang)

According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, the government has "foresight" and used scientific data to respond to the pandemic, including the imposition of lockdowns to curb the virus spread.

"All those na nagsasabi na mali at mahina ang COVID response (saying the COVID response is wrong and weak), I am sorry, you’re wrong and the data will support us," he said during a televised press briefing Tuesday, August 3.

Roque said it was also "wrong" for critics to claim the government has been "reactive" instead of being proactive in dealing with the pandemic.

As the country faced an increase in COVID cases driven by the Delta strain, he said the government precisely implemented the weeklong stricter general community quarantine (GCQ) in Metro Manila this week to give the people time to prepare for the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from August 6 to 20, 2021.

He assured the public that there was no danger the capital region would run out of hospital beds during the stricter GCQ period.

The government also tried to highlight the country was in a better health situation compared to other countries.

Based on global tracking sites, Roque also said the Philippines ranked 24th in the list of countries with the most number of coronavirus cases.

The country has so far recorded more than 1.6 million cases of infections since the pandemic started last year. Over 200 cases of the highly transmissible Delta strain have already been reported.

With 62,615 active coronavirus cases, Roque also said the country placed at 29th among nations in this regard.

"Ang pinakaimportante (Most importantly) we are only 86th in the whole world as far as iyong mga namamatay (deaths). One death is too much, totoo po iyan, pero (that's true but) in relation to the whole world, number 86," he said.

Based on worldwide figures, the coronavirus pandemic has left more than 198 million people infected and 4.2 million dead since the outbreak started last year.

As of Aug. 3, the United States has the highest COVID-cases across the world with more than 35 million. Its death toll reached more than 613,000. The US is followed by India with 31.7 million COVID cases and Brazil with 19.9 million.

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