‘Not a contest,’ says IATF on PH having highest COVID-19 numbers in region

MANILA, Philippines — Saying there is no contest among nations about COVID-19, government tried to allay fears of the Philippines having the highest number of infections in Southeast Asia because it has been doing the “best practices” to contain the spread of the disease.

“Hindi naman ito contest among Asean (Association of Southeast Asian) nations. Hindi naman tayo contest na pakuntian ng number,” said Cabinet Sec. Karlo Nograles, the spokesperson of the Interagency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases during Thursday’s virtual briefing.

(This is not a contest among Asean nations. This is not about which country has fewer cases.)

“Ang best practices pa rin is exactly what we’re doing. In fact, if there’s something that we learned doon sa summit namin sa Asean pati yung Asean Plus Three is that what we are doing here in the Philippines is also something that they are doing also in their respective countries,” he added.

Among these practices, Nograles claimed, are the implementation of a “quarantine or lockdown,” imposing travel restrictions and conducting more tests.

That said, there should not be much to be alarmed about, he said.

“Of course you will be alarmed, but you don’t get disheartened if ang nakikita mo is, o dumadami tayo. O, mas malaki na tayo sa Malaysia or tayo ang pinakalamalaki sa Asean. If naman ang kapalit nyan isa agad natin na-isolate, agad natin tinitreat and agad nating napaparecover,” he said.

(Of course you will be alarmed but you don’t get disheartened if you see that our number of COVID-19 cases is rising. Especially if it’s consequence is being able to isolate, treat and recover the patients.)

He said the government has been more aggressive in testing suspected cases of COVID-19, and increasing the country’s testing laboratory capabilities.

Instead of worrying about the rising numbers of infections, effort should be done in finding a treatment for the virus, Nograles further said.

“That’s what we’re trying to focus on now. What is the medicine, what is the treatment we can give to our patients because the vaccine will take a year to develop. ‘Yan ang kanilang projection (That’s their projection),” Nograles said.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said the Philippines will participate in studying possible cures for the virus as he called for cooperation in developing a vaccine.

The Philippines as of Wednesday confirmed 5,453 cases of the respiratory disease with 349 fatalities and 353 recoveries.

Following the Philippines in Southeast Asia is Indonesia with over 5,100 cases and Malaysia with over 5,000 cases.

EDV