The Department of Health (DOH) claimed on Monday, April 12, that the enforcement of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and nearby provinces did not go to waste as it stopped the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases.

This comes after the government on Sunday, April 11, lifted ECQ over Metro Manila and 4 surrounding provinces even if COVID-19 cases have not eased. Health workers aid the two-week ECQ – the strictest form of lockdown in the country – went to waste, prompting the DOH to react on Monday.

“We cannot say that it has gone to waste… If we didn’t implement such measure, our cases might be more than 10,000 daily cases because of the exponential increase,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a mix of English and Filipino during a press briefing on Monday, April 12.

Vergeire reiterated that the effects of ECQ intervention could be felt in the next 10 to 14 days.

“We still don’t have the indication of what happened during the ECQ. We could see the effects of the ECQ in the next 10 to 14 days. But let me tell you something, this virus, its spread or transmission is exponential,” she said.

On Sunday, the Healthcare Professionals Alliance against COVID-19 (HPAAC) said the two-week ECQ was “wasted” since the long-term changes necessary to curb virus spread were not implemented.

“We reemphasize that this mobility restriction is but a short-term intervention, and yet it seems to have been wasted again. The government still has no clear plans and efforts to fix the root causes, and the nation continues to suffer because of this,” HPAAC said.

‘We implemented measures’

Vergeire said that while the “NCR Plus” was under ECQ, the government was able to add more beds in hospitals and distribute mechanical ventilators across health facilities in the country.

“Mayroon po tayong nadagdag na 3,200-plus na mga kama sa ating mga mga opsital. Wala pa po diyan ang ICU beds,” she said, adding that they were able to add 164 ICU beds across hospitals in Metro Manila. (We were able to add 3,200-plus beds in hospitals, excluding the ICU beds.)

Aside from this, Vergeire said they were able to replenish the personal protective equipment (PPEs) of healthcare workers in the country and augment hospital funds.

She also said that the government has been in constant communication with local government units to address the spike in cases in their locality.

A year into the pandemic, the Philippines is still struggling to contain the spread of the deadly disease. For the past days, the country has been logging around 9,000 COVID-19 infections. On April 2, the country’s daily caseload was at its highest with 15,310 infections.

As of Sunday, the Philippines has 864,868 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 14,945 deaths and 703,404 recoveries.

In recent days, relatives of COVID-19 patients have been turning to social media for help with finding available hospitals for admission, with some of them narrating how their loved ones died without proper treatment as there was no space left in hospitals.

The lockdown in the “NCR Plus” bubble covering Metro Manila and 4 neighboring provinces – Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite – was eased to a modified ECQ starting Monday, April 12, until April 30. – Rappler.com