By Pearl Gumapos
The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed on Saturday (Aug. 21) the community transmission of the Delta variant in the Philippines.
“Base sa samples and results coming from the Philippine Genome Center, mukhang ‘yan po talaga pinapakita na community transmission is there,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in the Laging Handa public briefing.
“But as I always say, mula pa naman noong umpisa, we treat [it] already as a community transmission at ‘yun po ang mga aksyon na ginagawa,” Vergeire said.
According to her, evidence is needed to declare the variant’s community transmission.
“Kailangan lang ng evidence to officially declare it is there, but the government has really pursued actions when it comes to transmission level sa ating bansa at. ‘Yun na po ang naging aksyon mula pa umpisa.”
Meanwhile, Vergeire urged the public to instead pay attention to the number of active cases and not the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines
Pag tiningnan po natin mga numero, ‘wag tingnan ang cumulative number. Let’s look at the active cases. Pag tiningnan, tumataas talaga ang active cases. Ito ang dapat pagtuunan ng pansin ng ating gobyerno,” she said.
“Pag tiningnan ang ating mga projections, mukhang tataas pa rin [ang mga] kaso sa mga susunod na araw. Dapat talaga ang paghahanda ay nandiyan pa rin. Atin pong tinutugunan lahat ng aspeto ng response to further prevent increase in cases,” she added. -rir
