{"id":268859,"date":"2020-09-16T05:22:46","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T09:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=268859"},"modified":"2020-09-16T08:45:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T12:45:19","slug":"palace-says-worst-of-covid-19-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/16\/palace-says-worst-of-covid-19-is-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace says worst of Covid-19 is over"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Parents and guardians of students wait in line for the distributions of module for the online blended learning at the Pasay City West High School on Wednesday (Sept. 16, 2020). (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday claimed that the worst of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis is over since the country has been able to improve its healthcare capacity significantly.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque responded to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that more Filipinos believe that \u201cthe worst of the Covid-19 crisis is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaintindihan po natin yung<\/em>\u00a0pessimism\u00a0ng ating kababayan dahil napakahirap po talaga nitong pandemiya na dinulot nito. Pero ang masasabi ko lang po<\/em>\u00a0(I understand the pessimism of our citizens because the situation is really difficult now. But all I can say is) the worst is over,\u201d he said in an interview over PTV-4.<\/p>\n

Roque said the country hit rock bottom when it entered into recession for the first time in almost 30 years last month with a 16.5-percent economic plunge in the second quarter due to the lockdowns.<\/p>\n

But now that the economy has started to open up, he said Filipinos must learn to live with the virus by maintaining minimum health standards at all times.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng ating panawagan sa lahat, puwede po tayong mabuhay na nandyan pa ang<\/em>\u00a0Covid\u00a0dahil hanggang wala naman bakuna, walang gamot talagang matatagalan ang ating pandemiya<\/em>\u00a0(Our appeal to everyone is, we can live with Covid because until there is no vaccine, there is no medicine, the pandemic will stay for a long time),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Covid-19 does not mean that livelihood has to stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cPuwede naman pong mabuhay basta pag-ingatan po ang ating mga kalusugan para tayo ay makapaghanapbuhay<\/em>\u00a0(We can live as long as we take care of our health so we can pursue our livelihoods),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The SWS survey which was conducted from July 3 to 6 and released on Tuesday, showed that 57 percent of Filipinos believe that the worst-case scenario of the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to come.<\/p>\n

According to the survey, this was a 10-point jump from last May\u2019s survey results, where 47 percent of Filipinos said the worst-case scenario of the ongoing pandemic has not yet arrived.<\/p>\n

More Covid-19 tests<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque also responded to the remark made by Vice President Leni Robredo that there should be more Covid-19 tests since the average 30,000 tests per day is \u201cno longer enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, nothing will ever be enough for someone na hindi nakikita ng kahit anong mabuti sa pamahalaan (who doesn\u2019t see anything good that the government is doing),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He touted anew how the Philippines currently has the \u201cbest testing policy\u201d in Asia, but also emphasized the need to sustain the gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIpagpapatuloy pa natin ito dahil kung kinakailangan dapat tayo ang pinakamataas sa testing sa buong mundo. Kung kakayanin natin bakit hindi<\/em>\u00a0(We have to continue this because if necessary, we should have the highest testing capacity in the entire word. If we can do it, why not),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In an interview over GMA, Robredo emphasized the need to increase testing since the goal is to have less than 5 percent positivity rate or the percentage of patients who have positive results, which is the standard of the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n

With just 100 days until Christmas Day, Roque expressed hope that Filipinos would experience a \u201cmerry Christmas\u201d where they are safe, healthy, and with their families.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Ang)<\/em>\u00a0merry Christmas\u00a0nasa puso naman natin yan basta tayo po\u2019y kapiling natin mga pamilya, ligtas sa sakit, tayo po\u2019y magkakaroon ng<\/em>\u00a0merry Christmas\u00a0kung tayo po\u2019y buhay. Yan ay<\/em>\u00a0enough reason\u00a0para magkaroon tayo ng<\/em>\u00a0merry Christmas\u00a0sa panahon ng pandemiya<\/em>\u00a0(A merry Christmas will be in our hearts as long as we\u2019re with our families, free from illness, we\u2019ll have a merry Christmas while we\u2019re alive. That\u2019s enough reason for us to have a merry Christmas at the time of a pandemic),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte expressed hope that the world would be Covid-free by December should a vaccine be developed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday claimed that the worst of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis is over since the country …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":268860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268859","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=268859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268861,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268859\/revisions\/268861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}