The Department of Health yesterday discouraged the public from organizing or joining events that draw huge crowds in a bid to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III strongly urged Filipinos to “avoid attending, participating in, and organizing events that draw a huge number of attendees.”
“The DoH likewise recommends the cancellation of such planned big events or mass gatherings until further advice,” the Health Secretary said in an advisory.
Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo, however, clarified that the advisory was only to recommend that big gatherings like concerts or prayer rallies be postponed or canceled.
“The advisory was really directed at mass public gatherings for example concerts or big prayer rallies or big mass gatherings that draw a lot of people. So the DoH recommends to maybe postpone or cancel these events,” Domingo said.
“But for controlled gatherings where you can take precautionary measures, you can always push through with them and these are always just recommendations it’s not like it’s illegal to hold a meeting or to hold a convention especially if you can take precautionary measures,” the official said.
The Health department confirmed that there has been no reported community transmission in the country at present and they attributed this to the level of awareness Filipinos have.
“So far, we’ve seen that there is no community transmission yet and the public is very aware. They really know and they watch over themselves,” Domingo said.
“So, I think we’re doing quite well in the first few battlegrounds and we hope that we keep it just to keep out the community transmission,” Domnigo added.
A command center, which focus solely on the novel coronavirus, have been set up to expedite communication among government agencies involved in the response and management efforts.
“We would like to assure the public that all measures to contain the potential spread of 2019-nCoV infection are being explored, studied, and implemented to keep the Filipino people safe from the threats of this infection,” Duque said. (Betheena Kae Unite)
