Too early to decide if return to ECQ necessary: Palace

FILE: Traffic builds up along Marcos Highway at the boundary of Pasig-Cainta during the rush hour on Tuesday (May 19, 2020). (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)

MANILA – Malacañang on Wednesday said it is still too early to determine if there is a need to reinforce an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in some areas after quarantine protocols were relaxed to restart the economy.

In an interview on GMA’s Unang Hirit, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said from May 16, the day quarantine rules were eased, it would take at least 14 days for symptoms of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to appear in infected persons.

“Masyado pang maaga kasi alam naman natin na 14 days ang period na lumilipas bago natin malaman kung marami pa ang magkakasakit dahil nga doon sa dagsaan ng mga tao sa malls (It is to early because we know that there is a 14-day incubation period before we find out how many more are getting infected after they started flocking to malls),” Roque said.

Roque urged the public to stay home unless it is necessary to go out, stressing that opening up malls and other industries does not mean that the Covid-19 threat no longer exists.

As of May 16, Roque said the country has 13,457 total bed capacity for Covid-19 patients in Metro Manila.

If the country’s Covid-19 case doubling time shortens to two days, he said hospitals and health facilities would soon run out of available beds for new patients.

President Rodrigo Duterte, in a public address aired over state-run PTV4 late Tuesday night, also warned of a return to ECQ should the rate of infection speed up.

“If the contamination will be as fast as before and it will continue to infect our — ‘yung nakalabas na (those who went outdoors), then we’ll have to just go back to the original — the program,” he said.

On Saturday (May 16), photos of mall-goers ignoring physical distancing and crowd control measures surfaced on social media platforms, raising concerns that the second wave of Covid-19 infection may happen.

Metro Manila and the provinces of Laguna, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Zambales are currently under modified ECQ (MECQ) until May 31.

The cities of Cebu and Mandaue in Cebu province remain under ECQ.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country was placed under GCQ.

Expanded targeted testing

Since a quarantine alone would not curb Covid-19, Roque assured that the government, in partnership with the private sector, is boosting its testing capacity.

Roque said that while the government could not test the entire Philippine population, expanded targeted testing is currently being carried out to get a clear picture of Covid-19 infections in the country.

He reiterated the government is eyeing to test 1.5 to 2 percent of the 110 million population with priority to those symptomatic, those coming from abroad, those with close contacts, and those who tested positive in rapid antibody tests.

The government is working on increasing the number of Covid-19 testing laboratories from the current 31 to 90 which can carry out at least 30,000 tests per day by the end of the month.

As of May 19, there are 12,942 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country with 837 deaths and 2,843 recoveries.