ni Jhon Aldrin Casinas
HINDI ito ang tamang oras para mag-aksaya ng panahon, lalo na’t nakikitaan ng muling paglobo ng bilang ng bagong kaso ng coronavirus disease (COVID-19) ang Metro Manila, paalala ng isang miyembro ng independent research team nitong Linggo.
Ikinababahala ni Professor Guido David ng OCTA Research Group ang pagtaas ng bagong kaso ng COVID-19 sa capital region, sa pagsasabing maaaring umabot sa average na 5,000 hanggang 6,000 kaso kada araw ang impeksyon sa metropolis sa pagtatapos ng Marso.
“This not the time to be dilly dallying. We must make solid decisions,” pahayag ni David sa panayam sa DZMM.
“We could be at 4,000 [cases] by next week, and then two weeks we could be at 5,000 [cases] based on the projections we saw, and by the end of March we could be at 6,000 cases,” paliwanag niya.
“That would be a lot of cases and our healthcare system will be overwhelmed,” dagdag pa ni David.
Aniya, tumalon sa 1.66 mula 1.47 noong mga nakaraang linggo ang reproduction number sa Metro Manila, at dumoble ang bilang ng mga nagpopositibo sa lugar.
“So far we have not been able to contain this upsurge here in Metro Manila. Even our positivity rate used to be at 4 percent, now it is at 8 percent,” ani David.
“This is really alarming numbers because it is difficult to stop at this level so we really have to be more strict and we have to take some other measure because, what is happening so far is it is spreading to other parts of Metro Manila,” dagdag pa niya.
Paliwanag ni David, isa sa posibleng rason ng paglobo ng impeksyon sa metropolis ay ang bagong COVID-19 variants na sinasabing mas nakahahawa.
“The presence of the variant is one of the reasons. We are not saying that it is prevalent, but what we are saying is this kind of acceleration or spread has not been seen in the previous variant,” giit niya.
“The previous coronavirus does not spread this fast. We are sure of that. So even just by looking at the numbers, even though we don’t have a complete bio-surveillance yet, we can say that there’s something different compared from before.”
Iniulat ng Department of Health ang nadetektang mga bagong variants ng COVID-19 tulad ng South African at UK variants sa ilang bahagi ng bansa kabilang ang Metro Manila.
“We respect and support what the government does … but what we are saying is we have to really think of ways to stop this surge,” saad ni David.
Mararamdaman, aniya, ang epekto ng pagtugon upang mapigilan ang pagkalat ng impeksyon dalawang linggo matapos ang pagpapatupad nito.
“That’s why we cannot really wait, we have to do this now. We cannot wait na umabot siya ng 4,000 cases bago tayo magpapanic,” paalala niya.
Ayon kay David, ang pinakamabilis na paraan upang mapigilan ang pagtaas ng kaso ay ang pagbabalik sa mas mahigpit na modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) o maging sa enhance community quarantine (ECQ).
“We are advocating for a quick response right now [and] do something,” aniya.
