THE Department of Health (DOH) is currently in discussion with the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) on a proposal to extend by one week the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
“One of the things that we need to do right now is undertaking with the National Economic and Development Authority…[a] cost-benefit analysis on this [possible] extension of ECQ. How it can impact in the economy, and most importantly, its impact on the health of the people,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a television interview on Tuesday.
She said that the DOH has recommended the extension of the ECQ to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) but nothing is final yet.
“There will be an assessment of the progress before ECQ ends,” she said.
To date, she stressed, there is still no data to support the extension of the ECQ.
“But ideally, the ECQ should be at least two weeks, so that we can see the decline in the number of cases after two weeks, so that we can see the effects on our health-care utilization like our hospitals,” she added.
Vergeire explained that the effects of the one-week ECQ being implemented right now will not be felt immediately, just like what happened in July last year when cases was surging and a two-week “timeout” was implemented in August. The cases decreased 10 days after the lockdown.
“We will be assessing so that we will know if we need to extend or just stricter restrictions [will be implemented] when the ECQ will be lifted,” she stressed.
She also recalled that the health-care utilization rate also peaked after the two-week lockdown.
“Meaning, it would take a longer time for us to see the effects in our health-care system, in the number of cases…What we are looking for right now is to slow down the number of cases spreading,” she said, adding that the ECQ will give hospitals time to manage the cases and strengthen the capacity of local government units.
She, however, stressed that the one-week ECQ is “really short.”
As of March 30, an additional 9,296 cases were recorded, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 741,181.
There were also a total 103 additional recoveries and five deaths.
Of the total number of cases, 16.8 percent (124,680) are active, 81.4 percent (603,310) have recovered, and 1.78 percent (13,191) have died.
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