Palace says Duterte gov’t deserves good grade in handling COVID-19 pandemic

September 15, 2020

The Duterte administration deserves a good grade of 85 percent in handling the coronavirus pandemic, which is already on its sixth month since the government started to impose quarantine measures to prevent the spread of the virus, Malacanang said on Tuesday.

In a virtual press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque noted that the projections of the experts that the COVID-19 cases in the country could reach three million by June did not happen.

He also cited the "very low" case of mortality rate, which is "only at 1.7 percent."

"That is what is important, if there's a pandemic, the people's right to live should be protected," he said.

Roque, who is also the spokesperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, also said that the country's health system is not overwhelmed.

He said that as of September 14, there were 1,900 ICU beds and only 50 percent were occupied; 13,700 isolation beds with 44 percent occupancy rate; 5,900 ward beds, of which 48 percent were occupied; and 2,200 ventilators, with only 27 percent being used.

"So, all in all, I think we serve a very good grade. I would give it a grade of 85 percent," Roque said.

He also claimed that the Philippines has the "best testing policy in the whole of Asia and probably in the whole world," noting that it has already exceeded three million tests, which is about 3 percent of the country's population.

Roque said COVID-19 tests continue.

"I think we will have the highest number of testing, one of the highest in the whole world. So, that's clearly our biggest strength," he added.

With the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, he said the government has allotted P5 billion for the hiring of additional 50,000 COVID-19 tracers as more isolation facilities will be built.

Since middle of March, President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed quarantine measures in the country, the strictest was during the early months when most regions were placed under enhanced community quarantine to prevent the spread of the virus.

Currently, only Iligan City, Bacolod City and Lanao del Sur have remained under modified ECQ, while a few others, like Metro Manila, are under the general community quarantine. Most parts of the country is under a more relaxed quarantine classification of modified GCQ.

The government has said that it has to start opening up the economy as it could no longer sustain its closure. Localized lockdowns are being implemented in specific areas where there are high cases of COVID-19. Celerina Monte/DMS