The proposed selective quarantine in Luzon is not yet final as the government moved to scale up targeted testing of suspected coronavirus cases to curb the spread of the disease, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles announced Monday.
Nograles said Inter-Agency Task Force for Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) must still come up with “a game plan what happens after April 30” and will make a recommendation to President Duterte for his final action.
He said Presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the government’s national policy on the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), merely mentioned the possibility of a selective quarantine after it was suggested by some stakeholders.
“Kasama ‘yan sa discussions sa IATF. Kami ni Secretary Galvez ayaw namin pangunahan siyempre because the IATF is not just Secretary Galvez and myself. There are plenty of Cabinet secretaries in the IATF and other high-ranking officials all discussing the probables,” Nograles said during a virtual press conference Monday.
“When Secretary Galvez said that is probable pero (but) is it final? Not yet. Because ultimately we have to come up with a game plan what happens after April 30. And ultimately kailangan din natin ng approval ni Pangulong Duterte,” he said.
The same government parameters on total or partial lifting, extension or expansion of ECQ will also be taken into consideration by the IATF, according to Nograles.
“We have to show with accuracy how these mechanism will operate and how it will be to the advantage of our health, our safety, our security, our economic and social dimensions, so kaya nga lima ang parameters na ginagamit namin. Kung ano man decision naming, it will be based on those five parameters,” he said.
The parameters are the trends in the COVID-19 epidemiological curve, which include, among others, the doubling time, acceleration, or deceleration of new cases; capacity of the health care system, that includes availability of quarantine centers and protective gear for frontliners, and capability on contact tracing and testing; social factors; economic factors; and security factors. (Genalyn Kabiling)
