Covid surge posible!

NAIIRITA NA naman ang Pangulong Duterte sa mga balita na posibleng tumaas muli ang kaso ng Covid-19 pagkatapos ng eleksyon.

“Bakit naka-banner pa rin ‘yung headline na surge, surge somewhere? Why do they have to really come up with something that is not alarming, but almost a source of irritation for all of us? When as a matter of fact, we have the --- well, at least, the accurate. Bakit hindi sila magtanong sa…?” ani Duterte.

Ngunit inamin naman ng Department of Health na posibleng magkaroon muli ng surge kung hindi susunod sa health protocols ang publiko.

“Qualified naman (ang news report), Sir, if the minimum public health standards are violated, are not complied with, they project that there will be a surge. Although in the qualifying subsequent statement, it’s very clear ‘no na hindi naman ‘yan absolute na talagang magkaka-surge. But kung hindi susunod ang tao, in fact, the faster modeling group has projected that if the reduction in the minimum compliance to the minimum public health standards, ‘yung 30 percent reduction will be equivalent to 300,000 active cases by the end of May this month,” ani DOH Sec. Francisco Duque.

“So it is also a good reminder. Although it is sometimes a source of irritation for us but it is also good because people are told that if you are careless, if you are reckless with your compliance with wearing of the (face) mask, you’re gonna get sick, you’re gonna be hit by this evolving or emerging sub-variants of Omicron. Eh ang problema natin dito, the biggest challenge here, Mr. President, is the virus is so unpredictable. You do not know which bend it’s going to turn. So iyon po ang problema,” dagdag pa ni Duque sa kanyang tugon kay Duterte.

Umamin rin si Duque na nitong Enero lamang ay tumaas ang bilang ng Covid cases sa bansa dahil sa mga mutation ng virus. Kung kaya’t muling nanawagan si Duque sa publiko na magpabakuna kontra Covid.

“Nagmu-mutate po siya (Covid-19) but the WHO (World Health Organization) has not recognized them as variants of interest nor as variants of concern. They still are treated as Omicron variant. And luckily, we have had the surge with BA.2.2 in January, predominantly that was the variant that caused our spike in January. And hopefully that with our increasing vaccination coverage, we have a much higher level of protection. So that we hope that these low numbers are sustained and we will not see any overwhelming of our health systems capacity,” wika pa nito.

Pinawi rin ni Duque ang pangamba ng publiko sa muling pagtaas ng Covid cases sa bansa. “Kahit na tumaas, huwag po tayong masyadong magwo-worry kahit na sumipa ang mga kaso basta ‘yung hospitalization rate mababa, okay tayo,” dagdag pa ni Duque. (Mindanao Examiner)