CITING availability of vaccines against the virus from China, Malacanang doesn’t seem to find any reason to revert the country back under strict community quarantine even with the health department’s admission of a new spike of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
According to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, the country does not need to go into full-scale lockdown, adding that the government can address the problem in other ways.
Roque also hinted at available hospital facilities with enough intensive care units, isolation facilities and wards for those who have been infected with the highly-contagious virus.
“For the month of March, it is uncalled for. Handa po tayong gamutin ang mga magkakasakit. Meron pong available na beds, at inatasan na po natin ang mga local government units na paigtingin ang compliance sa minimum public health standards, contact tracing, testing, at may kapangyarihan po sila na magpatupad ng localized lockdown,” Roque told reporters in a briefing.
At least 1.12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to the Philippines so far. Of this number, 600,000 doses were Sinovac donated by the Chinese government while 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines were donated by wealthy nations and firms under the COVAX facility, a global facility aiding low- and middle-income countries in their pandemic response.