SEC. ANDANAR: Magandang umaga, Pilipinas at sa lahat ng ating mga kababayan sa iba’t ibang panig ng mundo. Ngayon po ay araw ng Lunes, January 11, 2021. Ako po ang inyong lingkod, Secretary Martin Andanar mula sa PCOO. Magandang umaga, Rocky.
USEC. IGNACIO: Good morning, Secretary Martin. Tuluy-tuloy pa rin po ang ating pagbibigay ng impormasyon tungkol sa mga pinakahuling hakbang ng pamahalaan para labanan ang COVID-19 sa ating bansa. Ako naman po si Usec. Rocky Ignacio.
SEC. ANDANAR: Ito ang Public Briefing #LagingHandaPH.
Sa ating mga balita: Anim sa sampung Pilipino sa Metro Manila nagsusuot ng facemask at face shield ayon sa survey na ginawa ng UP OCTA Research team; Senador Bong Go nanawagan ng tuluy-tuloy na pamimigay ng facemasks at face shields para sa mga nangangailangan. Ang detalye sa report na ito:
[VTR]
USEC. IGNACIO: Mga residente naman ng Bayan ng Barobo at San Miguel sa Surigao del Sur na naapektuhan ng malawakang pagbaha hinatiran ng tulong ng ilang ahensiya ng pamahalaan at ng opisina ni Senator Bong Go. Narito po ang report:
[VTR]
SEC. ANDANAR: Sa Cavite naman, mga naging biktima ng sunog sa Bacoor City pagpasok pa lang ng bagong taon nakatanggap rin ng assistance mula sa pamahalaan. Narito po ang report:
[VTR]
SEC. ANDANAR: Sa ating pagbabalik, makikibalita tayo sa Bacolod City mula mismo kay Mayor Evelio Leonardia sa pagbabalik po iyan ng Public Briefing #LagingHandaPH.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
USEC. IGNACIO: Nagbabalik po ang Public Briefing #LagingHandaPH.
Inaprubahan ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ang pagkakaroon po ng tripartite agreement sa pagitan ng mga lokal na pamahalaan, national government at sa ilang pharmaceutical companies para po sa vaccine procurement ng kani-kanilang lokalidad. Kabilang nga po sa nakipagkasundo para makabili ng COVID-19 vaccines ay ang Bacolod City. Kaugnay po niyan makakausap po natin ang Pangulo ng League of Cities of the Philippines at Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia. Magandang umaga po, Mayor.
BACOLOD CITY MAYOR LEONARDIA: Hi! Good morning, Usec. Rocky. And good morning to Secretary Martin likewise, of course, to Philippines.
USEC. IGNACIO: Mayor, kumustahin po muna natin ang ating mga kababayan diyan matapos nga po iyong naging matinding pagbaha sa Negros Occidental noong nakaraang linggo. Ano po iyong idinulot nito sa inyong lungsod at sa ngayon po ba ay maayos na o normal na ang sitwasyon ngayon diyan, Mayor?
BACOLOD CITY MAYOR LEONARDIA: Well, fortunately Usec. Rocky, Bacolod was not that hard hit. It’s more on in the cities of Talisay, Silay, Victorias and the municipality of E.B. Magalona. Yes, Bacolod had some floods but maybe we can say it was not that problematic so far because maybe it was also depending on the amount of rain that came in. So Bacolod is, it’s colder here than the usual, we have 24 degrees centigrade, that’s unusual to be having that temperature like that. That’s the situation as of the moment but the other cities were quite hard hit.
USEC. IGNACIO: Okay. Mayor, mapunta naman tayo doon sa vaccine. Nagkapirmahan na po kayo ng AstraZeneca ng tripartite agreement at nag-allocate po ang Bacolod City LGU ng 300 million pesos for the vaccine. Bakit po AstraZeneca ang napili ninyong bakuna, Mayor?
BACOLOD CITY MAYOR LEONARDIA: Well, it’s like this – the League of Cities of the Philippines or LCP actually created a committee for vaccine availment as early as December ‘no. We thought that was a necessity considered that this is a new ball game considering that we are all so unfamiliar with the possible details that could come in into having to procure these, to distribute these and to implement all of these.
So I gave an instruction to our secretariat headed by Veron Hitosis, that we should be able to talk to all these prospective pharmaceutical firms so that we would be able to get all the specifications and all the details or particularly to the efficacy of all these vaccines, so that when we started the first that was available like AstraZeneca but it does not mean that this is going to be exclusive. There are about 8 of these different products and we are supposed to talk to each one of them and we should be able to relay all this information to the city mayors so that they can be properly guided as to which vaccine should we prefer in the end when we would have already decided exactly to actually avail of these vaccines.
USEC. IGNACIO: Now, Mayor, that AstraZeneca already applied for Emergency Use Authorization, may tinitingnan na po bang target date kung kailan po makakarating sa Bacolod ang vaccine at kung ilang dosages po ang puwedeng i-allocate sa inyo?
BACOLOD CITY MAYOR LEONARDIA: Well, they told us that – in fact we signed a non-disclosure agreement or those details are supposed to be confidential, but in terms maybe of expecting it to be delivered – it is about the start of the third quarter. But we haven’t talked to the other pharmaceutical firms yet because tomorrow we will have a general assembly of the mayors and no less than Vaccine Czar, Secretary Charlie Galvez, is going to be our main speaker and with him will be the Food and Drug Director General Usec. Domingo and probably after the meeting tomorrow, more of these details will be somehow clarified.
So our target is to see to it that the city mayors are guided so that, you know, because we believe that the procurement process will have to involve naturally the national government. It is not expected that the local government units will themselves be able to connect with these pharmaceutical firms because these firm are supposed to deal directly with the national government and we should be coordinating with the national government so that we can, you know, rationalize all these and after all we view all of this exercise as a matter of teamwork because when these all started, we were even of the impression that all the vaccines will come from the national government.
Until the idea of the LGUs, particularly the cities in our case, should also be able to participate and assist and somehow coordinate with the national government and maybe for purposes of information, we, the LCP as reported to me by our Executive Director last night, Veron Hitosis, we had already the commitments of about 61 cities and altogether that amounts to something like more than 10 billion pesos. So we feel that this is our chance likewise to be contributing, to be contributory to the national effort to vaccinate all our people and that is why we feel that this is a matter of teamwork and we are doing our part.
USEC. IGNACIO: Opo. Mayor specific to Bacolod City naman po, you allocated po ba na 300 million pesos sa budget. Saan daw po kukunin ang budget na ito or magkakaroon o napag-usapan po ba iyong budget realigning na gagawin ng LGU?
BACOLOD CITY MAYOR LEONARDIA: We have savings and fortunately for us, we are ready with that money. And of course while we are concerned, we believe that it is our commitment and it is our policy to see to it that when the health and lives of our people are concerned, the battle cry is ‘go for broke’. So that might be scrapping the bottom of our resources.
But aside from the savings that we had allocated for this, we are committed that if worst comes to show, we are willing to realign, require or augment any and all items in our budget that if the need arises, we will scrape bottom.
USEC. IGNACIO: Mayor, ilang katao po iyong tina-target na mabakunahan sa inyong siyudad; may priority list din ba na uunahin ang LGU or free for all po ang vaccine?
BACOLOD MAYOR LEONARDIA: Well, as of the moment, of course—para sa amin the dream is to vaccinate everybody. But when you are talking of Bacolod City for example, you are talking of 613,996 whether that is realistic or not, I doubt.
So from the basis of our initial… the initial advice that we are getting, they told us that about 80% is already good for herd immunity or even as low as 70%. So, approximately, we are supposed to target a little bit less than 400,000. And that is just the initial target, we believe though that if circumstances will allow us, particularly our financial resources will be enough, then we would like to have everybody as possible to be vaccinated in Bacolod.
USEC. IGNACIO: But Mayor, may pag-iimbakan po ba ng bakuna diyan sa Bacolod; ito po ba ay rirentahan din ng LGU?
BACOLOD MAYOR LEONARDIA: Usec. Rocky, what was that again? Sorry.
USEC. IGNACIO: Kung mayroon po kayong tamang storage o pag-iimbakan po ng bakuna diyan sa Bacolod; at kung wala po, kayo po ba ay magrirenta rin?
BACOLOD MAYOR LEONARDIA: Well, in terms of some vaccine that seems not to be a problem because the requirement is just a low of something like 2 to 8 degrees centigrade’ but there are brands which may require us to store it in a much different temperature basis.
So if we are talking of the -70 degrees facility, we are asking our Negros City Secretariat to survey on this because we do not have that facility and probably almost everybody outside of Metro Manila most likely would not have that kind of facility. So that is also something for the marketing strategies of all these vaccine firms to check on how will this be made available for all of us, all over outside of Metro Manila.
USEC. IGNACIO: Here in Metro Manila, medyo mababa po iyong confidence ng mga tao na magpa-vaccine o magpabakuna. Diyan po sa inyo, kumusta po iyong pagtanggap ng inyong constituents based po sa information drive na ginagawa ninyo tungkol sa vaccination program? Majority po ba gustong magpabakuna or may nag-i-express ng doubt o nag-a-alinlangan po?
BACOLOD MAYOR LEONARDIA: Usec. Rocky, we believe that that orientation or that attitude seems to be universal. Because not just in the Philippines, not just in the Bacolod, I believe even in the USA that is a problem in that extent. However, we are confident that once we would have intensified the vaccination and—I mean, the education information campaign and it looks like most of these people in our informal stories are of that wait and see attitude, because they do not want to be the first line. I think they would want to be interested, but of course given the past experiences of our people in vaccination, I think that is quite understandable.
But, we feel that—what I had been using as my campaign in the media is that the experience we were told of a Bacolodnon who was one of the first to be vaccinated in Canada.
And so when she was asked ‘what made you decide?’ She admitted that there were also apprehensive in telling us that story that when they were brought to the vaccination center, they were in one bus, they were also silent, because they were also quiet, because they were all afraid. Of course, this quiet expected and understandable. But in the end, she said that it was a choice between COVID and vaccination and they concluded that COVID is more dangerous than vaccination. That is why they decided to be vaccinated. That is the kind of campaign that we will be using here in Bacolod City.
USEC. IGNACIO: Mayor, parting message na lang po para sa inyong mga kababayan diyan sa Bacolod City.
BACOLOD MAYOR LEONARDIA: Well, Bacolod has improved a lot in terms of the COVID situation, because from a very high 86 cases average daily in September, in December it went dome to only 5. And we had many deaths during those months and for the month of January, fortunately we had only record one. Even our hospital utilization rate, which was almost a 100% before has gone down now to only 28%; and our active cases as of today, from what used to be high of 1,400, it is now only 55.
So, I would like to take this opportunity to thank President Duterte once again, together with Senator Bong Go for the quick response that they gave us when we had that… when we were at the height of our problem. So, together with General Melquiades Feliciano, Secretary Cimatu, Secretary Dino and of course Secretary Galvez, Secretary Dizon.
The national government had been a very big help to us here in Bacolod and so we would like to thank them for that.
But in addition to that, Bacolod is very much a part or an active participant in this attempt to be in team play with the national government. And we believe that this is about teamwork and we would like to see the principle of the allocative efficiency or meaning the optimal distribution of goods and services to the consumer in terms of their preference is which is a principle being fed to us by our executive director. We would like to see that eventually we will have all these things organized considering that as of this moment, while we have at least eight different products to choose from, it is a little bit complicated in the sense that they have different rates and they will be coming in different schedules.
So, all this will have to be threshed out and it will be a process and hopefully tomorrow during the general assembly of the League of Cities of the Philippines, we will be able to see a clearer and more definite roadmap where vaccination is concerned way down or cascading down to the cities and municipalities in the provinces in the Philippines.
USEC. IGNACIO: Thank you very much, Mayor Evelio Leonardia mula po sa Bacolod City. Stay safe Mayor!
BACOLOD MAYOR LEONARDIA: Thank you so much, Usec. Rocky; you too and Secretary Martin, please stay safe, we need you!
USEC. IGNACIO: Thank you.
SEC. ANDANAR: Samantala, sa patuloy namang pagpapalakas ng COVID-19 testing capacity ng bansa ay inaprubahan nga ng Department of Health ang pooled RT-PCR test base na rin sa pag-aaral na ginawa ng RITM kasama ng ilan pang eksperto sa bansa at sa suporta na rin ng Go Negosyo, dahil diyan makakapanayam natin ang Go Negosyo Founder at Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship. Secretary Joey Concepcion, magandang umaga po at welcome back to the Public Briefing.
Balikan natin si Sec. Joey. Back to you, Rocky.
USEC. IGNACIO: Okay, Secretary. Samantala, kumustahin naman po muna natin ang mga kaganapan sa ibang mga lugar natin sa bansa or babalikan na po natin – nasa linya na po ba ng ating komunikasyon si Secretary Concepcion?
Okay. Samantala, puntahan naman po natin ang iba pang mga balita mula sa ibang mga bahagi ng ating bansa. Kasama natin ang Philippine Broadcasting Service, ihahatid po iyan ni John Mogol ng PBS-Radyo Pilipinas. John?
[NEWS REPORTING BY JOHN MOGOL]
SEC. ANDANAR: Maraming salamat, John Mogol ng PBS Radyo Pilipinas.
Balikan po natin si Secretary Joey Concepcion. Sec., magandang umaga po sa inyo.
SEC. JOEY CONCEPCION: Magandang umaga, Martin.
SEC. ANDANAR: Naglabas nga po ang DOH ng interim guidelines for pooled testing back in November last year but it is only now that they expressed their full approval of it. Pupuwede ninyo po bang ipaliwanag sa amin kung paano ba ginagawa iyong pooled testing at paano makikinabang ang mga tao, employer at pamahalaan kung ito ang susunding uri ng testing?
SEC. JOEY CONCEPCION: So, ang nangyari dito at natapos ang research [garbled] four months ago at ang nangyari dito, pools of five ang puwedeng gamitin. In other words, five people to isang test kit. So iyong kagandahan noon ay siyempre iyong cost sa pagti-test ay bababa ‘no, kasi kaysa one person to one test, ngayon limang tao sa isang test kit.
At isa pang mangyayari diyan, hindi na kailangan ng isang equipment na medyo mahal, iyong automatic extraction machine ‘no, so mawawala rin iyan. Pero palagay ko lahat ng laboratories ay bumili na rin niyan so nandiyan na rin iyan. So in effect, bababa iyong cost ng RT-PCR testing. Sa tingin namin, sa pooled testing using government hospitals, as low as 675 pesos, provided iyong infection level is at about less than five percent ‘no. Kasi kung iyong prevalence mas mataas sa five percent, siyempre tataas iyong cost kasi uulitin nila bawat … let’s say iyong test kit positibo siya, ang lima na iyan, iti-test uli. Pero kung negative, then wala nang iti-test.
So kaya it’s more effective if the infection is below five percent, talagang mas mura iyong pooled PCR testing.
SEC. ANDANAR: Nagawa na nga ng ilang LGUs ang pooled testing at sinabi nila na talagang cost-efficient ito. But how about its accuracy? Sigurado bang nadi-detect natin ang mga may sakit sa COVID-19?
SEC. JOEY CONCEPCION: Sorry, Martin, I didn’t get your first question.
SEC. ANDANAR: Yes, Sec. Joey. Ito ay nagawa na ng mga LGUs, but how about its accuracy? Sigurado bang nadi-detect natin ang mga may sakit ng COVID-19?
SEC. JOEY CONCEPCION: It’s very accurate. It’s as accurate as taking individual PCR testing – one person to one test kit – it’s just as accurate as that. And that’s why DOH finally approved it and it’s been rolled out, hopefully, at a faster pace. So ang kailangan natin dito, ma-train iyong mga laboratory technicians, para sa paggawa nitong PCR testing.
And the good part here is, tataas iyong capacity pa natin kasi iyong isang tao sa isang test kita, limang tao ngayon sa isang test kit. So aakyat iyong kapasidad ng isang laboratory testing.
In other countries, pools of ten pa nga ang ginagamit nila eh, pero dito iyong gumawa ng research – Philippine Society of Pathology, Dr. Raymond Lo – took the more conservative stand na habang iyong prevalence dito sa amin medyo mataas, mas maganda kung pools of five lang ang gamitin natin for now.
SEC. ANDANAR: Advisable rin bang gamitin ang pooled PCR testing para sa mga high risk areas. Magiging kasing accurate at efficient pa rin ba ang pooled testing regardless kung may mataas o mababang transmission rate sa isang community o work place base po sa inyong experience?
SEC. JOEY CONCEPCION: Definitely, hindi namin gagawin. Nakita namin noong about four months ago sa Makati, medyo mataas sila noong panahon na iyan, hindi umobra. Lumampas pa sa budget namin ang cost. So, kapag iyong prevalence above ten percent, hindi puwedeng gawin. So, only below five percent is the most economical. At sa nakikita natin, pati iyong Makati at ibang lugar ngayon, medyo mababa iyong prevalence, so sa tingin namin, kaya na gawin ang pooled PCR testing. Dito sa mga BPO, iyan talagang mababa ‘no – below three percent – so iyan ang ginagawa.
Iyong sa kumpanya namin, sinubukan namin diyan at nakita namin ang bilis at mas mura since ang [unclear] sa pabrika namin halos 1.5% eh talagang 600 plus pesos lang ang binayaran namin dito sa pooled PCR testing. So talagang mas mura siya ‘no kung mababa iyong prevalence.
SEC. ANDANAR: Does this mean na ito na ang magiging standard testing na gagawin sa mga low risk areas sa bansa?
SEC. CONCEPCION: I think dapat ‘pag nakikita nila and they can do what they call a preliminary study ‘no, iyong iti-test nila muna siguro groups of about a 100 to check kung [garbled] even [garbled] use of an [garbled] muna para makita nila iyong [garbled]. And kung [garbled] mababa na [garbled] just do it [garbled] masi-save iyon diyan, iyong [garbled] iyong test kits iyong masi-save ninyo.
So [garbled] on that Sec. Mart, we are now asking the same group to use saliva instead of nasal swab ‘no. Nakita naman natin sa [garbled] nila ang research. Ang gagawin naming official research, the same group, Philippine Society of Pathologist so [garbled] use saliva instead of nasal swabbing will not only be less painful but it will be even cheaper kasi diyan mawawala iyong swabbers na medyo mahal rin iyan eh at mas mabilis. So iyon ang next research namin.
SEC. ANDANAR: Kumusta naman po ang kasunduan for AstraZeneca sa vaccine procurement through the private sectors at kailan na po ba darating ang tinatayang tatlong milyong doses ng bakuna sa bansa?
SEC. CONCEPCION: Well on Thursday iyong programa namin, tinatawag namin ‘Dose of Hope’, pipirma dito iyong Part 2 kasi iyong Part 1 natapos last year ‘no, iyong first 35 companies. Karamihan dito sa mga unang bumili iyong pinakamalaking korporasyon natin dito – mga Ayala, mga Lopez, mga Aboitiz lahat iyan… sila nauna kasi dito sa una medyo risky kasi. Nag-advance kami ng certain percentage to reserve the vaccine. At that time wala pang MHRA approval iyong AstraZeneca. Nagkaroon ng MHRA approval before new year. So—pero magandang resulta [garbled] sila ng MHRA approval at dito ngayon magbibigay [garbled] under emergency use.
So itong pangalawang grupo naman nagsimula dito after new year so we got orders. Pumayag rito ang AstraZeneca na i-increase iyong allocation dito sa private sector, suwerte naman iyong private sector na sa tulong ng AstraZeneca nangyari iyan. So aabot iyong total doses ng private sector ngayon sa 6 million. Pero ito, dadating dito bandang May-June na this year ‘no pero at least that gives enough time for the government to prepare kasi ang idu-donate namin pupunta dito sa DOH, kalahati nito pupunta sa mga empleyado namin na both probationary and… I mean, permanent and contractual ‘no.
So—pero marami diyan details on the implementation of vaccinating our people. Iyong kalahati naman pupunta dito sa government healthcare workers, frontliners, etcetera. So that is where we are at iyong programa ng AstraZeneca nagbukas rin sila ng allocation para sa mga LGUs ‘no. So iyan pipirma rin iyan on Thursday so maganda ang resulta nito, medyo malaki ang makukuha ng private sector at ang LGU from AstraZeneca ‘no. Iyon nga ang magandang balita, dadating lahat iyan palagay ko by June pero hindi lahat dadating sa isang buwan ‘no – over the months ‘no starting maybe May, June, July, August, September.
SEC. ANDANAR: Puntahan naman natin ang tanong from the media with USec. Rocky. Please go ahead, Rocky.
USEC. IGNACIO: Yes. Thank you, Secretary Martin. Secretary Concepcion, may tanong po si Jo Montemayor ng Malaya para sa inyo, although may nabanggit na rin po kayo tungkol dito: Iyong update daw po sa negotiation for the second batch of vaccines from AstraZeneca, is there a final number of dosage po and when will it be delivered? How many more private companies joined the second batch?
SEC. CONCEPCION: Well dito mas madami, halos aabot nang over 200 ‘no, mga 240, mga in that level ‘no at hindi lang malaki, may mga maliit na negosyante dito. Kinuha namin at pinool (pooled) namin ‘no kasi sinabi namin sa AstraZeneca mas maganda maging mas inclusive tayo ngayon so pumayag naman sila. So the total number of doses is going from batch 1 and batch 2 will approximately be about 6 million ‘no, approximately about 6 million. So that will be good for 3 million people, so kalahati noon pupunta sa government, 1.5; kalahati noon, 1.5 million pupunta dito naman sa private sector.
SEC. ANDANAR: Secretary, any parting words na lang po para sa ating mga viewers ngayong umaga?
SEC. CONCEPCION: Well sa tingin natin Sec. Martin, the most important thing is tuloy natin iyong safe [garbled] ng wearing of mask and wearing of face shield. Pero para talagang sugpuin natin itong virus, iyong vaccine talaga, iyon ang solusyon natin. Iyon ang [garbled] head natin para talagang mabuhay uli ang mga negosyante, iyong health risk natin talagang will go down and siguro naman ma-eradicate itong virus.
So talagang the focus right now of the private sector is to help the government sa vaccine ‘no and I’m glad and I’d like to thank AstraZeneca for really helping the Filipino people ‘no.
They have gone all their way to really try to [garbled] the vaccines to come to the Philippines kahit itong order na ‘to medyo lumampas na sa pagbibigay ng MRH ‘no. Ibig sabihin noon iyong mga ibang bansa na malaki na may pera nag-bet sila, nag-deposit sila maaga pa so nag risk sila. Pero sa Pilipinas halos tayo, dito lang tayo nag-order kaya suwerte rin tayo na they got their MHRA approval. So—and Astra lived up to keeping the allocation, so aabot dito mga [garbled] na pipirmihin dito [garbled]. Magandang balita iyon but that is still not enough ‘no, we need to [garbled] 70 to 80 percent of our population para talagang sugpuin natin itong virus at para [garbled] ekonomiya at iyong mga maliit na negosyante mabubuhay uli ‘no.
SEC. ANDANAR: Maraming salamat po, Secretary Joey Concepcion. Stay safe po kayo, sir.
SEC. CONCEPCION: Salamat.
USEC. IGNACIO: Samantala, balita naman po mula sa Cordillera: Mayor Benjamin Magalong muling nanawagan sa pakikipagtulungan ng publiko sa medical practitioners at health experts sa Baguio City; COVID-related death sa siyudad tumaas nang 40%. May report si Florence Paytocan. Florence…
[NEWS REPORTING]
USEC. IGNACIO: Maraming salamat Florence Paytocan ng PTV-Cordillera. Sa Davao City mga lumabag sa face mask ordinance ng siyudad simula Hulyo ng nakaraang taon, umabot na sa 900 individuals. Ang detalye sa report in Julius Pacot.
[NEWS REPORTING]
USEC. IGNACIO: Maraming salamat sa iyo, Julius Pacot ng PTV-Davao.
SEC. ANDANAR: Ulat naman mula sa Visayas, kaso ng COVID-19 sa Cebu City tumaas matapos ang holiday season. Lokal na pamahalaan, pinaghahandaan na rin ang P500 million para sa bakuna kontra COVID-19. Ang detalye mula kay John Aroa. Maayong buntag, John!
[NEWS REPORTING]
SEC. ANDANAR: Maraming salamat John Aroa ng PTV-Cebu.
Samantala, umakyat na sa 458,198 ang mga gumaling mula sa COVID-19 sa bansa matapos itong madagdagan ng 8,592 recoveries kahapon; 1, 906 naman ang bilang ng mga bagong nahawaan ng sakit. Sa kabuuan, nasa 487,690 na ang mga nagka-COVID. Walo naman ang naitalang nasawi kaya umabot na ito sa bilang na 9,405 deaths. Simula pa noong January 4 ay sunud-sunod na ang naging pagtaas ng COVID-19 sa bansa. Bagama’t bumaba ng bahagya ang reported cases kahapon, kung ihahambing sa sinundan nitong araw, nanatili pa rin itong mas mataas sa 1,900. Ang pinakamaraming kaso ay nagmula sa Quezon City na umabot sa 121 cases, sumunod ang Benguet with 84 cases, ang Davao City nasa 82 cases, nasa pang-apat at pang-limang puwesto naman ang Cavite at Bulacan. Nasa 20,087 ang active cases sa bansa o katumbas ng 4.1% ng total cases. Malaki ang nabawas sa bilang ng mga aktibong kaso dahil sa mataas na bilang ng recovery kahapon.
USEC. IGNACIO: Sa bilang na ito 83% ay mild cases lamang, 5.8% ang asymptomatic, 6.8% ang nasa critical na kundisyon, 3.7% ang severe, samantalang .63% naman ang moderate cases. Paalala po muli, hindi pa po tayo tapos sa laban kontra COVID-19. Ipagpatuloy po natin ang tamang pagsusuot ng face mask at full coverage na face shield. Iwasan din po ang mga kumpulan ng tao. Napatunayan na pong mabisang paraan ang mga nabanggit na safety protocols para hindi po tayo mahawa o makahawa ng sakit.
Para po sa inyong mga katanungan at concerns tungkol sa COVID-19, maaari po ninyong i-dial ang 02-894-COVID o kaya 02894-26843. Para naman po sa mga PLDT, Smart, Sun at TNT subscribers, i-dial ang 1555. Patuloy rin kayong makibalita sa mga pinagkakatiwalaang sources ng impormasyon tungkol sa COVID-19, maaari ninyong bisitahin ang covid19.gov.ph.
SEC. ANDANAR: Maraming salamat sa ating mga partner agency para sa kanilang suporta sa ating programa at maging ang Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas. Salamat din sa Filipino Sign Language Access Team for COVID-19. Mabuhay po kayo!
At diyan po nagtatapos ang ating programa sa araw na ito. Ako po ang inyong lingkod, Secretary Martin Andanar ng PCOO.
USEC. IGNACIO: Ako naman po si Usec. Rocky Ignacio.
SEC. ANDANAR: Hanggang bukas po muli dito sa Public Briefing #LagingHandaPH.
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SOURCE: PCOO-NIB (News and Information Bureau-Data Processing Center)
