According to INQUIRER.NET, the Philippines’ internists on March 14 urged strict compliance with public health measures to arrest the increase in COVID-19 cases, as the country cannot afford another lockdown.
“How do we deal with the current surge? We cannot endure another lockdown because of its dire socioeconomic impact. We need to change our behavior,” the Philippine College of Physicians said in a statement.
The doctors’ group said cases were increasing nearly as fast as the infection rates in July last year when daily cases were hitting nearly 5,000 and overburdened health workers cried for “timeout.”
On March 14, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 4,899 coronavirus infections, the second highest single-day count this year and the third consecutive day of more than 4,000 cases. The additional infections brought the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 621,498.
More articles: Tainan City Government helping new immigrants understand real property rights
The DOH reported 63 more deaths, 16 of whom were previously tagged as recovered, raising the death toll to 12,829.
INQUIRER.NET mentions, this was the fourth straight day of more than 50 reported deaths.
Following its “mass recovery” system, the DOH declared 13,371 people with mild or no symptoms as recovered after observing a two-week quarantine, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 560,512.
The deaths and recoveries left the country with 48,157 active cases, of which 91.8 percent were mild, 4.2 percent asymptomatic, 0.8 percent moderate, 1.6 percent severe, and 1.6 percent critical.
To suppress the spike in infections, Metro Manila is imposing a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Monday and deploying more than 9,000 police officers to enforce the stay-at-home order.
More articles: New Immigrant Activity celebrated in Kaohsiung
