The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is supporting the implementation of granular lockdowns but it should be coupled with “accurate” and “up-to-date” data to make it work.
“For us to do effective granular lockdowns---- that needs to be based on very good epidemiological data so that we can maximize its impact,” WHO Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said in an interview with CNN Philippines on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
Abeyasinghe emphasized the importance of focusing on where the transmission is happening and that it should be “generated through good and strong contact tracing.”
"If we are now considering moving from a very stringent quarantine to a more relaxed quarantine with very granular lockdowns, which is something that the WHO advocates and supports, the critically important element is that those granular lockdowns, those actions need to be influenced by very accurate, very up-to-date data," he said.
“Otherwise, we could end up in a situation that the granular lockdowns don’t give us the results that we need. So it is critically important that we have validated up-to-date information on patient numbers and positivity rates, on the severity of the disease, (and) where are the cluster of cases,” he added.
If granular lockdowns are anchored on accurate data, this “can bring us the desired results,” said Abeyasinghe.
“We do recognize that large-scale lockdowns have negative impacts on the economy and have negative impacts on the ability of people to earn their daily bread. So, doing granular lockdowns is something that WHO is advocating but needs to have accurate, up-to-date data that drives those lockdowns,” he said.
During the Malacanang press briefing, Department of Health (DOH) Epidemiology Bureau Director Dr. Alethea De Guzman said that the planned implementation of granular lockdowns is based on data.
She noted that 80 percent of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila were only detected in at least 11 percent to 30 percent of its barangays.
"Ito pong policy shift na pinag-uusapan natin, it came from the analysis of our data showing that whenever we put these areas under lockdown, kapag tiningnan talaga natin, iyong 80 percent ng mga bagong kaso po natin ay actually hindi naman po sa lahat ng barangay ng buong siyudad o ng buong munisipyo (This policy shift that we are talking about, it came from the analysis of our data showing that whenever we put these areas under lockdown----if we look at it--- 80 percent of new cases were actually not found from all barangays of a city or municipality)," she said.
"Base po sa nakita natin sa NCR (National Capital Region), naglalaro lamang from 11 to 30 percent of whole barangay are actually contributing to 80 percent of our cases (Based on what we are seeing in NCR, only about 11 to 30 percent of barangays are actually contributing to 80 percent of our cases)," she added.
The implementation of regional lockdowns such as- enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) are just "temporary measures," said De Guzman.
“It’s there to buy us time to further improve our public health and critical care capacities,” she said.
She also emphasized the importance of "core strategies to reduce the number" of cases. These include: adherence to the minimum public health standards, shortening the interval from case detection to isolation, and the vaccination coverage.
“This is our way to balance health and economy. We want to be able to reduce cases, but at the same time, safely open up our sectors so that people can continue working,” said De Guzman.