Health chief says PH already on second wave of COVID-19 infections

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III (File Photo: Senate of the Philippines/Facebook)

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Wednesday, May 20 that the Philippines is now on the “second wave” of infections from the global pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Duque revealed this during the Senate hearing on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic when asked by Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. on how the second wave should be prevented.

“Actually nasa second wave tayo (Actually, we are on the second wave),” said the Department of Health (DOH) secretary. “Nung nagkaroon po tayo ng tatlong kaso ng mga Chinese nationals from Wuhan. ‘Yun po ay kinikilalang first wave. Maliit lang na wave (When we had our first three cases with the Chinese nationals from Wuhan, that was the first wave. It was a small wave)”

“‘Yung first wave natin nag-umpisa, batay po ito sa ating mga batikang epidemiologist, na ang first wave natin happened sometime in January (The first wave happened sometime in January, according to our renowned epidemiologists),” he added.

However, the health official did not detail when the second wave of infections began or what parameters were used to determine the timeline but referred to the opinions of Dr. John Wong who is working along with the sub technical working group data analytics with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

Meanwhile, a medical advisor of the government reacted different to Duque’s statement.

“We’ve never flattened anything yet,” Dr. Benjamin Co said in an interview with ABS-CB. Co is a pediatric infectious diseases specialist and a medical advisor to the government task force on COVID-19.

“I think he’s coming from a definition, probably, that [the curve] was flat from the very beginning then came a few cases,” he added.

DOH Secretary Duque said that they are now focused on preventing a third wave of cases as the implemented community quarantines are slowly being eased. Earlier, he also warned that a third wave of cases may occur in Metro Manila if it abruptly shifts to general quarantine.

“Ginagawa po natin ang lahat para nga ma-flatten ‘yung epidemic curve at para nang sa ganon ay magkaron po tayo ng sapat na panahon na mapaunland ta maitaas ang ating kakayahan sa sistemang pangkalusugan. (We are doing what we can to flatten the epidemic curve and to have enough time to improve and increase our health system’s capacity),” assured the health official.

Four months since the “first wave” hit the country; the number of COVID-19 cases has soared up to 13,221, with 842 deaths and 2,932 recoveries.