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- He said that he just wants the government to manage its transmission and improve its healthcare system.
- Duque added that the country is heading to the “right direction” when it comes to its COVID-19 response.
Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III admitted that reaching zero COVID-19 cases in the Philippines is not his goal.
Duque burst the bubble of the hopeful Filipinos after he shared that he has come to terms that the virus is going to “stay with us.”
“This virus is gonna stay with us. Let us not deceive ourselves. We’re not going for zero COVID cases,” he said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
So what’s the goal? Duque said that the government just wants to manage the transmission of the virus while improving the quality of its healthcare system.
The Philippines is now the 20th country with the highest number of confirmed COVID cases in the world but Duque remained unfazed as he claimed that the country is doing so much better than European countries.
“We have to look at the recovery rate. Our recovery rate today is about 85%. So I think that’s the most important statistic to consider. We have known now over the last six or seven months or eight months that about 90% are mild and about 5% are asymptomatic. The rest would account for severe and critical,” he said.
“We’re heading towards the right direction. I say this because all the investments that we have made in terms of ramping up the health systems’ capacity, our minimum public health standards, our quarantine facilities, our contact tracing have improved,”
The Philippines now has 326,833 COVID-19 cases with 5,865 deaths and 273,313 recoveries.
