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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Expert backs proposal to extend ECQ in NCR+

Expert backs proposal to extend ECQ in NCR+

Published Mar 31, 2021 12:48 pm

National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 Special Adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said he is backing the proposal to extend the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR)-plus bubble since many hospitals in the region are now in full capacity.

Health workers are occupied with attending patients coming to their emergency section at the Adventist Medical Center Manila in Pasay City while their COVID-19 section is already full of patients on Tuesday, March 30 2021 (ALI VICOY / MANILA BULLETIN)

In a virtual briefing on Wednesday, March 31, Herbosa is recommending to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to extend the ECQ in NCR-plus for another week.

"Dahil tuloy-tuloy po ang pagtaas , tumaas ang ating reproductive number, o ang dami ng nahahawa to 1.4 na ata ang figure, ang ibig sabihin nun ay napakaraming nagkakahawaan. Yung ECQ pag pinahaba mo yan, mababawasan yung paghawa-hawa  (Because our cases are increasing, our reproductive number has also increased to 1.4, it means that are a lot of people getting infected. If we will extend the ECQ, the number will decrease)," the medical expert said.

"Puno ang mga ospital, pag nag-open up pa tayo dadami pa ang kaso baka hindi maka-adapt ang ating local hospitals at quarantine facilities, syempre ang tingin natin dyan, mukhang kailangan (The hospitals are full, if we open up, there will be more cases, local hospitals and quarantine facilities may not be able to adapt. So I think extension is necessary)," he added.

Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal, or the NCR plus bubble, have been placed under ECQ from March 29 until April 4 to curb the rising COVID-19 cases in the area.

On March 30, the OCTA Research Team reported that the NCR's COVID-19 reproduction number could reach 1.4 by the end of the week from its current 1.86.

A reproduction number of 1 means a single COVID-19 patient can infect one person.

Herbosa pointed out that lockdowns must also be accompanied with public health measures such as testing, isolation, and contact tracing.

"Yung ECQ ginagawa mo yun para magawa mo yung public health measures (We are doing this ECQ to implement these public health measures). You lessen mobility so the virus cannot move from one person to another," he added.

"Detection, yung pag-test ng tao, eto na nga in-announce ng Department of Health (DOH) na gagamit tayo ng antigen testing at makakatulong ito sa isang outbreak kagaya sa NCR plus na mahanap natin ang mga kaso, kasi pag nag-ECQ ka kailangang mahanap mo yung mga positive at mahiwalay mo sila para mahinto mo yung transmission... iyon ang mga nagpapababa ng reproductive number hindi the lockdown itself (Testing is detection, just like what the DOH announced, we are going to use antigen testing and it will be beneficial in areas with outbreaks, just like the NCR plus because we will easily find the positive cases and separate them so we can stop the transmission. These are the measures that lower the reproduction number, not lockdowns)," Herbosa continued.

The DOH on Tuesday said the World Health Organization has recommended the use of antigen test kits in the NCR-plus bubble. 

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