By Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA (Reuters) – The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has extended a strict exclusion in the capital and neighboring provinces by at least one week to try to stop a renewed increase in coronavirus infections, his spokesman said on Saturday.
The Philippines, which has the second-highest COVID-19 cases and deaths in Southeast Asia, reported 12,576 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, further putting health care systems under pressure.
Restrictions, which include a ban on non-essential movement, mass gatherings and dining in restaurants, will continue for at least another week, Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said in a television announcement. The measures would end on April 4.
“This is accompanied by intensified prevention, detection, isolation, detection and rehabilitation that we will monitor on a daily basis,” Roque said.
Active cases in the country reached a record 165,715, of which 96% were mild, data from the Ministry of Health showed.
But the intensive care capacity in the hospitals in the capital has reached a critical level, with 80% of the beds and many hospitals being forced to remove patients.
The crowded metropolitan area, an urban expansion of 16 cities with at least 13 million people, accounts for two-fifths of the country’s 784,043 confirmed cases and a third of the total 13,423 deaths.
GRAPH: Hotspots for COVID-19 infections in the Philippines (from April 2) – https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/yxmpjwwwrvr/chart.png
A research team from the University of the Philippines on Saturday called for the isolation facilities to be set up quickly to prevent infections from spreading through households.
Extensive coronavirus curbs will continue to hurt the Philippines’ economy, which fell a record 9.5% last year.
GRAPH: Philippines fights renewed increase in COVID-19 cases Philippines fights renewed increase in COVID-19 cases – https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/PHILIPPINES/bdwpkmebwpm/chart.png
The Philippines has so far vaccinated nearly 739,000 people. It is only 1% of its target to vaccinate 70 million of the 108 million population to secure herd immunity and safely reopen the economy.
(Posted by Neil Jerome Morales; Edited by William Mallard and Christina Fincher)