{"id":268814,"date":"2020-09-15T23:41:59","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T03:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=268814"},"modified":"2020-09-15T23:41:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T03:41:59","slug":"reduced-physical-distancing-stays-unless-revoked-by-prrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/15\/reduced-physical-distancing-stays-unless-revoked-by-prrd\/","title":{"rendered":"Reduced physical distancing stays unless revoked by PRRD"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Roque, however, defended the decision of the task force to reduce physical distancing, saying the body\u2019s decision is \u201cbased on science.\u201d (File photo<\/a>: DOTr MRT-3\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The government\u2019s decision to gradually reduce physical distancing among passengers in public transportation stays unless revoked by President Rodrigo Duterte, Malaca\u00f1ang said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-IED), in a six-hour meeting on Tuesday, reassessed the policy to relax physical distancing guidelines following opposition from medical groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe body (IATF-EID) came up with a recommendation to be submitted to the President and it will be the President who will ultimately decide,\u201d he said in an interview over CNN Philippines\u2019 The Source.<\/p>\n

Roque said the President will decide on the recommendation \u201cno later than tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was previously approved in the last IATF meeting last Thursday so until the President revokes it, I think it will be implemented,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, defended the decision of the task force to reduce physical distancing, saying the body\u2019s decision is \u201cbased on science.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said former Health secretaries Manuel Dayrit and Esperanza Cabral even expressed support for the government\u2019s move to reduce physical distancing on public transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to assure everyone over and over again that doctors were consulted and not all doctors share the view that it is only one-meter distancing that is the solution. There are very respected doctors including two former Secretaries of Health saying you can achieve containment of the disease by wearing masks, shields, disinfecting the public transportation, and more importantly prohibiting talking, prohibiting the use of cellphones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Medical groups did not object to the directive when it was first approved by the IATF last Sept. 10, Roque added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the IATF approved it, there was no objection, there was no controversy. The controversy came out again when medical groups after the decision was made, made an issue out of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also emphasized that the government had to consider \u201call aspects\u201d when making decisions, such as balancing health and the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as if one side wants to expose the population to the disease intentionally just for the sake of the economy. Because the reality is, even if you survive the disease if you can\u2019t survive because you\u2019re in poverty, that would not lead to any positive results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the government started implementing the directive to decrease physical distancing inside public utility vehicles to 0.75 meters from one meter, which is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n

The distancing would then be reduced to 0.5 meters (approximately 1.8 feet) on Sept. 28 and 0.3 meters starting October 12.<\/p>\n

Medical experts opposed the move, warning that it could lead to an increase in coronavirus disease infections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The government\u2019s decision to gradually reduce physical distancing among passengers in public transportation stays unless revoked by President Rodrigo …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":268544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268814","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\/268814","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=268814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268815,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268814\/revisions\/268815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}