BY GENALYN KABILING
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HUNDREDS of thousands of people could have died due to the coronavirus illness if the government had not enforced strict quarantine measures to contain the spread of the disease last March, Malacañang declared yesterday.
With the government’s home quarantine rule and other quarantine restrictions to contain the outbreak, presidential spokesman Harry Roque trumpeted that the country’s condition is improving amid the lower fatality rate and higher recovery rate.
“Kung walang ginagawa ang gobyerno, hundreds of thousands na ang namatay gaya sa ibang bansa. Tingnan ninyo ang kaso ang Brazil, hindi sila naniwala na kinakailangan ng social distancing, No. 2 na sila sa daigdig,” he said.
“Tingnan ninyo ang nangyari sa Amerika, hundreds and thousands na ang namatay dahil marami sa kanila hindi rin naniniwala sa social distancing,” he said.
According to Roque, the country’s doubling rate of coronavirus cases has slowed down to seven days while the critical care utilization rate is around 35 percent.
The country’s testing has also reached more than 10,000 a day with the positivity rate is five percent.
Of the 13,108 total bed capacity, Roque said the occupancy rate is 34 percent of the 1,298 ICU beds; 37 percent of 8,802 isolation beds; 35 percent of the 3,008 are beds. At least 19 percent of 1,941 mechanical ventilators are in use.
“Nagpapatunay naman po na tayo po ay nag-i-improve pagdating dito sa laban sa COVID-19,” he said, showing graphs on the country’s coronavirus data.
“Hindi tulad ng mga ibang bansa sa ating poulation na 109 million, we have limited deaths of around 1,000,” he said.
As of June 21, the country has recorded 30,052 coronavirus cases. People who recovered from the illness soared to 7,893 while the death toll reached 1,169.
