By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza and Vann Marlo M. Villegas, Reporters
MAYORS in Manila, the capital and nearby cities want the government to impose a flexible modified enhanced community quarantine starting next month, as they try to lessen the effects of the lockdown on the economy.
The two-week hybrid lockdown would allow more economic activities while keeping border controls and enforcing shortened curfew hours, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benjamin de Castro Abalos, Jr. said on Wednesday.
The mayors made the suggestion, which also sought to adjust curfew hours to 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., during a meeting with members of an inter-agency task force handling the state’s coronavirus pandemic response on Tuesday night.
“This is already a good option, it’s on the middle ground,” Mr. Abalos said by telephone. He said the hybrid lockdown would allow more business activities, which the Trade department approves of.
The proposal will also cover nearby provinces such as Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna.
Infections should not breach 2,000 before quarantine restrictions are relaxed to remove the strain on hospitals, Ranjit S. Rye from the University of the Philippines Octa Research Group told a televised news briefing on Wednesday.
The longer quarantine would help keep the downtrend, he said, noting that strict quarantine measures had partly cut coronavirus infections in recent weeks.
The coronavirus reproduction rate in the country was at 0.85, while the daily tally in the National Capital Region had fallen by 36% to 3,500, OCTA research fellow Guido P. David said at the same briefing.
“What we are seeing right now is a significant improvement,” he said. “We can say that the community quarantines have succeeded.”
Presidential spokesman Herminio “Harry” L. Roque, Jr. earlier said the economy would only reopen if the country had enough beds for coronavirus patients.
He said the Health department was in talks with an Austrian company for orders of about 200 more intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
“The balance between the economy and health concerns brought about by COVID is real,” Mr. Rye said, adding that daily wage earners were the most affected.
CASE TALLY
The Department of Health (DoH) reported 6,895 coronavirus infections on Wednesday, bringing the total to 1.02 million.
The death toll rose by 115 to 17,031, while recoveries increased by 10,739 to 935,695, it said in a bulletin.
There were 67,769 active cases, 1.1% of which were critical, 94.9% were mild, 1.6% did not show symptoms, 1.4% were severe and 0.95% were moderate.
The agency traces the lower tally to fewer testing outputs from some laboratories on Monday.
It said 18 duplicates had been removed from the tally, 12 of which were tagged as recoveries. Fifty-nine recoveries were reclassified as deaths.
One laboratory was closed on April 26, while five failed to submit data.
About 10.9 million Filipinos have been tested for the coronavirus as of April 26, according to DoH’s tracker website.
The coronavirus has sickened about 149.3 million and killed 3.2 million people worldwide, according to the Worldometers website, citing various sources including data from the World Health Organization.
About 127.1 million people have recovered, it said.
Meanwhile, the DoH said there is still insufficient evidence to recommend the use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin for coronavirus patients.
“There is that remark that the quality if evidence is very low,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told an online briefing, citing the reevaluation of evidence on ivermectin as a treatment for the coronavirus issued by group of medical societies including the Health department and Food and Drug Administration.
She said ivermectin is not recommended for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and combining it with doxycycline, which is used to treat bacterial infections.
Ms. Vergeire said only hospitals granted a compassionate special permit by the local drug regulator were allowed to distribute ivermectin.
Only five facilities had been allowed to use the drug against the COVID-19 virus under a special permit, FDA Director-General Rolando Enrique D. Domingo said in a mobile phone message on Tuesday.
A compassionate special permit is given in cases when doctors can’t give a patient anything else for treatment, he told the ABS-CBN News Channel. Ivermectin is being used by the hospitals mainly for patients with moderate symptoms, he added.
The Department of Health and FDA earlier said there was no evidence that ivermectin could cut deaths among patients with mild to severe COVID-19 cases.
Ivermectin did not also significantly reduce the duration of hospitalization based on some studies, they said. Health authorities also said the rate of hospitalization discharge “did not differ significantly” between those that were given the drug and the placebo group.
There was also no evidence that ivermectin could prevent coronavirus infections, they said, citing the World Health Organization.
The agencies said ivermectin products registered in the country were for veterinary use and were only allowed to treat animals suffering from parasites and heartworm.