THE President’s economic team does not consider the rise in Covid-19 cases a threat to the country’s recovery and believes that a lockdown is not imminent.
In a briefing on Monday, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno told reporters that “there’s nothing to fear” despite the recent report of the Department of Health (DOH) that new cases increased by 20 percent.
Diokno stressed that with the availability of vaccines and the establishment of health protocols, economic recovery is expected to continue despite a higher number of cases.
“I don’t think there will be another lockdown. They just issued the alert, plus the difference between the situation then and now is there are vaccines available and there’s a standard protocol for Covid cases,” Diokno said.
“If you feel sick, you just go to the hospital or you just drink something, just rest. So I don’t think that’s kind of scary. So I don’t even think why you’re wearing your mask here. So really, there’s nothing to be scared of,” he added.
The DOH earlier maintained the Alert Level 2 status over 26 provinces. Reports had the DOH explaining that the Alert Level 2 status placed over the provinces have been in effect since June 2022, contrary to one newspaper report that interpreted it as a fresh escalation of alerts.
Between April 10-16, the DOH reported there were 2,386 new Covid-19 cases and 20 deaths because of the virus.
Positivity rate
Earlier, CNN Philippines reported that DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the country’s positivity rate is rising. This is the percentage of tested people with positive Covid-19 results.
She said the positivity rate increased to 7.6 percent nationwide, representing 371 new infections daily. This is higher than the positivity rate of 6.9 percent or an average of 274 cases per day.
Meanwhile, the economic team also dispelled fears that an impending El Niño would lead to high inflation and disrupt the country’s economic recovery.
National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the government has been preparing its immediate plans to combat the ill effects of the dry spell.
Balisacan said these measures include standing ready to import still-to-be identified commodities should the country need additional supplies.
“If we need to import more, then we would have to make that decision early on and not wait until the effects are felt by our population,” Balisacan said.
“Wala pa naman (There are no commodities yet that could be imported) because the effects of the El Niño are expected to be felt toward the latter part of the year and spill over to next year,” he added.
Last week, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. ordered the creation of a government team to focus on mitigating the impact of the looming El Niño phenomenon, which is expected to hit from July to September this year and to last until 2024.
The President said he wanted a “whole-of-government approach” so the country would have “protocol-based and scientific” long-term processes. He also desires an awareness campaign to instill conservation of water in the public consciousness.
According to the government’s weather-monitoring agency, there have been seven severe El Niño events since 1980, with the last one lasting from 2015 to 2016 and inflicting $327-million losses in agriculture alone.
In the previous El Niño event that persisted from the last quarter of 2018 to the third quarter of 2019, up to 61 percent of the country endured a drought while the other 39 percent underwent a dry spell.
A drought means three consecutive months of greater than 60-percent reduction from average rainfall, or five consecutive months of 21-percent to 60-percent reduction from average rainfall.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza