A TOP Palace official stood firm that the government has been performing quite well insofar as handling the national health emergency even as he claimed that the re-imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and adjoining provinces should not be seen as failure on their part.
Interviewed on television, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the National Capital Region (NCR) was made to go back under the most stringent lockdown classification because of the sharp surge as manifested in record-high daily tallies of COVID-19 infections.
“Wala pong katotohanan iyan. Ang katotohanan po, hanggang February 22 ay nakontrol na po natin ang pagkalat ng COVID and, more or less, humigit-kumulang ay 1,000 cases na lang tayo a day. Pero pumasok po ang mga bagong variant. Mabuti na lang po na-discover na hindi mas nakakamatay ang mga variant na ito, pero ang talaga naman pong hindi maitatanggi, mas nakakahawa po,” Roque said.
“It is not because of the government. It is because of the virus. The virus has mutated,” quipped the Palace mouthpiece, adding that “It is something no one could have done anything about because that is the nature of the viruses: to mutate. What we need to do now is to adapt to this variant if they are more transmissible by observing minimum public health standards and having your COVID-19 vaccine if you are able to have it now.”