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PGH spox looks to two things that brought about the rising number of COVID-19 cases
In the second episode of "The Howie Severino Podcast," Philippine General Hospital (PGH) spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario mentioned two things that led to the high number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the country.
First, according to Del Rosario is the easing of health protocols, as came with an increase in interaction among friends and family.
"Clearly, we allowed transmission," he said. "We did activities that promoted transmissions. So, we increased the mobility of people and we allowed them to congregate or interact because we allowed them to go to different areas, we opened some commercial establishments, we allowed them to go out and probably have parties, even go out of town," del Rosario said.
"So, in a way, there was clearly an increase in interaction among friends, among family members, which when you are with them, you're not really that careful really because, 'Kamag-anak ko ito. Kapatid ko ito. Kapamilya ko ito, kaibigan.' You don't suspect them," he continued.
("So, in a way, there was clearly an increase in interaction among friends, among family members, which when you are with them, you're not really that careful really because, 'This is my relative. This is my sibling. This is my family, my friend.' You don't suspect them.")
Another factor that came into play was the presence of other variants in the country, said the doctor.
"Ang nakatatakot is, it's basically almost the same variant as the South African and UK na may mutation that will allow more transmission and also allow this virus not to be detected or be killed by the antibodies. And that's really driving the spread right now," del Rosario said.
("What's frightening about this is it's basically almost the same variant as the South African and UK which has mutations that will allow more transmission and also allow this virus not to be detected or be killed by the antibodies. And that's really driving the spread right now.")
Cases hit an all time high as well just after citizens celebrated the Christmas holidays and Traslacion.
According to del Rosario, everybody was bracing for the Holiday surge. "In fact, we were ready for the surge," he said. When it did not happen, people thought, 'False alarm!' and brought their guards down.
"'Yun pala, mayroon nang nag-i-incubate. The more transmissible variant was just really setting in. And now, we are really experiencing it. Talagang kumakalat na (Apparently, they were incubating. The more transmissible variant was just really setting in. Ad now, we are really experiencing it. It's really spreading)," del Rosario explained.
As of now, Dr. del Rosario said there are talks to give more budget to the Philippine Genome Center to do more tests and know the genetic makeup of the virus and the mutation so they can confirm if the variant is the one causing the increase in transmission.
This process, however, is labor intensive, said the PGH spokesperson.
"So, if you want to test so many samples from the different regions of the country so that you will create a pattern, you need to have more machines probably to do this, more people to work on it," said del Rosario.
Last March, PGH registered its highest number of COVID-19 patients to date.
It is in need of more doctors to treat them.
The Philippines on Wednesday afternoon reported 8,122 new infections, making the total tally of COVID-19 cases rise to 892,8080 with 704,386 recoveries and 15,447 deaths.
