By Fernan Angeles
THE Philippines has overtaken Indonesia in the list of Southeast Asian countries with the highest number of coronavirus disease contamination, but Malacañang simply warded it off by saying it is also happening elsewhere in the world.
Palace spokesperson Harry Roque, in an early morning interview with the CNN Philippines said that countries across the globe have seen a spike in COVID-19 infections. “It’s not just happening in the Philippines. Let’s not have this wrong cue that, ‘Uy, the Philippines is having this many increase in cases.’ It’s happening in 70 percent of the planet right now.”
Citing a report by the Nikkei Asian Review on August 2 that 126 countries and regions or about 70 percent of the globe recorded an increase in newly reported cases, Roque insisted that the Philippine government is in its right direction even as he claimed that the spike in local contamination could have been because the virus has mutated into a more infectious strain.
The Philippines logged a record-high 6,352 cases in just one day on Tuesday, followed by yesterday’s 3,462 cases, bringing the total to 115, 980 as of this posting, thus making the Philippines on its top list under the categories on the number of infected individuals and the number of active cases.
“Now overseas, they have confirmed that it has mutated, it has become far more infectious, five times more infectious. We don’t know yet scientifically if it has come to our shores but most likely it has. It’s a matter of time, perhaps,” he said.
“But it’s a reality that everyone in this planet will have to face. And despite what the political opposition says, as I said, it’s not just in the Philippines where it’s happening, it’s worldwide.”
When asked as to how the government would respond to such development, Roque said the Philippines will have to do aggressive testing, contact tracing, and isolation of cases.
“I think we are heading the right direction because we did not spare any expense. We open as many labs as we could at unprecedented time,” he said. “And we are opening more because we are not satisfied with the current testing.”
The Philippines has so far tested 1.52 million people for COVID-19, according to the Department of Health on Wednesday.