{"id":252364,"date":"2020-04-16T22:02:14","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T02:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=252364"},"modified":"2020-04-16T22:02:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T02:02:14","slug":"ph-defends-fight-vs-covid-19-as-cases-top-southeast-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/16\/ph-defends-fight-vs-covid-19-as-cases-top-southeast-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"PH defends fight vs. Covid-19 as cases top Southeast Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
In a virtual presser, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles defended the Philippine government\u2019s response to Covid-19, saying that it is also implementing the best practices to curb the virus. (File Photo by Martin Sanchez\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Despite having the highest number of confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in Southeast Asia, a Palace official said on Thursday the Philippines is responding to the pandemic in the same way its neighboring countries are doing.<\/p>\n

In a virtual presser, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles defended the Philippine government\u2019s response to Covid-19, saying that it is also implementing the best practices to curb the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, if there is something that we learned\u00a0doon sa<\/em>\u00a0summit namin sa Asean,\u00a0pati iyong<\/em>\u00a0Asean Plus Three (during the Asean Summit and the Asean Plus Three) is that what we are doing here in the Philippines is also something that they are doing also in their respective countries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Just like its neighboring countries, he said the Philippines also declared its own lockdown, travel restrictions, conducted mass testing, and is currently waiting for a vaccine to be developed.<\/p>\n

Nograles said even if the Philippines had surpassed Malaysia as the country with the most Covid-19 cases, it should not be viewed as a competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman ito<\/em>\u00a0contest among Asean nations,\u00a0di ba, hindi naman ito<\/em>\u00a0contest\u00a0na pakontian ng<\/em>\u00a0number,\u00a0hindi ganyan<\/em>\u00a0(This is not a contest among ASEAN nations, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s not a contest on which country has the least number),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Filipinos should not be \u201cdisheartened\u201d because the surge in the number of cases means that the government is working to beef up its Covid-19 response efforts.<\/p>\n

The increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the Philippines, Nograles said, is a result of the expansion of the government\u2019s testing capacity, capability, and implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course you\u2019d be alarmed, but you don\u2019t get disheartened if\u00a0ang nakikita mo<\/em>\u00a0is, \u2018oh dumadami tayo, oh mas malaki na tayo sa Malaysia o tayo na ang pinakamalaki sa<\/em>\u00a0Asean.\u2019 If\u00a0naman ang kapalit niyan is agad nating nai<\/em>-isolate,\u00a0agad natin tini-<\/em>treat and\u00a0agad nating napapa-<\/em>recover (Of course you’d be alarmed, but you don\u2019t get disheartened if cases are increasing and we have more cases than Malaysia or we have the highest cases in Asean because it means we can immediately isolate, treat, and help them recover),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of April 15, health authorities reported a total of 5,453 confirmed Covid19 cases, 349 deaths, and 353 recoveries.<\/p>\n

On April 14, US-based Johns Hopkins University\u2019s data showed the Philippines has the highest coronavirus cases at 5,223 followed by Malaysia with 4,987 cases and Indonesia with 4,839 Covid-19 cases. Singapore has the fourth highest number of cases 3,252 followed by Thailand\u2019s 2,643 and Vietnam\u2019s 267 cases.<\/p>\n

With the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) set to lapse on April 30, Nograles is hopeful that the government would be able to set up new guidelines for the \u201cnew normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged the public to cooperate by observing guidelines under the ECQ, stressing that the government could not afford to have its efforts go to waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more\u00a0na may mga pasaway<\/em>\u00a0(The more stubborn citizens), the more it becomes difficult to make the decision\u00a0\u2018di po ba<\/em>\u00a0(right)?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nograles said it would be unfair for those observing the guidelines to suffer from the consequences of others\u2019 refusal to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u2018Stop being so stubborn\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, in a separate virtual presser, described the country\u2019s tally on Covid-19 cases as \u201cembarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roque scolded the public for failing to observe guidelines under the Luzon-wide ECQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng dami pong pasaway sa atin. At dahil po diyan, number one na naman tayo sa<\/em>\u00a0Asean\u00a0sa dami ng<\/em>\u00a0Covid-19.\u00a0Nakakahiya po yan. Itigil niyo na po yung pagiging pasaway. Manatili kayo sa inyong mga tahanan<\/em>\u00a0(Too many of us are stubborn. And because of this, we\u2019re number one in Asean in terms of Covid-19 cases. It\u2019s embarrassing. Stop being so stubborn and stay at home),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He urged the public to be \u201chomeliners\u201d amid reports of traffic on the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), stressing that citizens of other Southeast Asian countries strictly complied with their quarantine rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cDapat tayong mga Pilipino mahiya dahil nagpapakita tayo na walang disiplina<\/em>\u00a0(We should be ashamed because we\u2019re showing other countries that we don\u2019t have discipline),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He, meanwhile, assured that more stringent measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 are currently being carried out, such as the targeted mass testing which started last April 14.<\/p>\n

Nograles, earlier, said the government aims to reach its target of 8,000 to 10,000 Covid-19 tests per day by the end of April.<\/p>\n

Health authorities consider the PCR-based test kits as the \u201cgold standard\u201d for diagnosing Covid-19 infections. On the other hand, rapid antibody test kits are faster but give less accurate results.<\/p>\n

On Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the \u201cimmediate\u201d purchase of rapid antibody test kits to boost government capacity to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Duterte directed the Department of Health, in coordination with its technical advisory group, to finalize guidelines for the supplementary utilization of rapid antibody test kits which have received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Despite having the highest number of confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in Southeast Asia, a Palace official said on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":252365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252366,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252364\/revisions\/252366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}