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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider 'COVID-19 as common flu?': Experts are still cautious, Palace says

'COVID-19 as common flu?': Experts are still cautious, Palace says

Published Feb 6, 2022 09:42 am

While health experts are optimistic, Malacañang said health experts in the country are still cautious about treating the coronavirus (COVID-19) like the common seasonal flu and that they prefer to take it one step at a time.

(Mark Balmores/ File photo/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles made the statement as more European countries are starting to ease COVID-19 restrictions on are moving to treat COVID-19 like the common colds.

In an interview with ANC early this week, Nograles said that despite the country showing a decrease in COVID-19 cases after a surge possibly driven by the Omicron variant, the Philippines cannot follow in the footsteps of western nations just yet.

"We'll have to wait for what the health experts will tell us. Right now, wala pa talagang consensus diyan, eh (There is still no consensus about that)," he said.

"Health experts are very careful and they like to take it one step at a time," he added.

"It's still a little bit of wait-and-see. But there is hope in seeing this being more of like the seasonal flu," he continued.

Nograles said that while the experts are cautious, they still are optimistic that the Philippines will one day move in the same manner of treating COVID-19 like the common flu.

"They're optimistic na papunta na 'yan sa parang flu na parang seasonal na (it will eventually be like the seasonal flu), because of what they saw with Omicron and because of how they saw the vaccines operate," he said.

" the vaccines were able to really work. Even with the surge, we didn't see a parallel surge happening hospitalization. That shows that the vaccines work," he added.

Early this week, it was reported that Metro Manila, which was the epicenter of infections, is now at moderate risk. This came after the region was escalated to Alert Level 3 in January due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.

On Friday, Nograles said that Metro Manila falling to the moderate risk level was proof that the country's calibrated response of prevention, detection, isolation, treatment, reintegration, and vaccination is effective.

However, he noted that despite the country being able to ease COVID-19 restrictions, particularly the recent change in protocols for returning overseas Filipinos and arriving foreigners, it was not yet time to declare the country's victory against the pandemic.

Related Tags

Karlo Nograles covid-19 seasonal flu common flu health experts are cautious
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