MANILA - The coronavirus situation has worsened in the Philippines, and the country is 10 steps backward from the time it initially addressed the pandemic last year, a former Health Secretary said Thursday.

"Talagang nag-worsen kumpara sa (It has really worsened, comparing) March 2020 at (and) March 2021," Dr. Esperanza Cabral told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

In a statement released Wednesday, Cabral said, "We are not back to square one. We are ten steps back from square one," as she recalled the challenges, especially of the health sector, when the country first confronted the pandemic.

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The Philippines is facing a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitals are under strain again, Cabral said. The Philippine economy also posted a -9.5 percent growth last year, its deepest slump since 1947.

Officials and analysts attribute the current surge in COVID-19 cases to increased mobility of people, non-compliance with health protocols, and the presence of more transmissible COVID-19 variants.

Some local governments, including in Metro Manila, have since revived some restrictive measures, including imposition of curfew. Foreigners and non-OFWs will also be temporarily barred from entering the country starting March 20 to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

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Cabral, who served as health chief during the the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, lamented the government's response to COVID-19 had been slow.

"Sana ay mas naging mabilis ang response natin at mas malawak. Palagay ko ay 'yan ang naging problema natin," she told TeleRadyo.

(We could have been faster in our response, and covered more. I think that was our problem.)

"Marami tayong kakulangan sa contact tracing, border control at ngayon ay sa vaccine rollout," she added, even as Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said last week that the government showed "excellent" management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

(We have deficiency in terms of contact tracing, border control and now, the vaccine rollout.)

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The country launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive on March 1, much later than many other countries, a day after Sinovac doses donated by China arrived in Manila.

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To date, over 240,000 anti-coronavirus jabs have reached the arms of healthcare workers. The Philippines aims to vaccinate all of its 1.7 million medical frontliners by April, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr.

"Assuming that there is a steady supply of vaccines, 'pag ang speed ng vaccination ay katulad ngayon (if the speed of the vaccination is the same as now), it will take us more than 12 years bago matapos 'yong 70 million (before we finished the 70 million)," Cabral said.

She said the government has to speed up the inoculation by 17 times to vaccinate two-thirds of the population by year-end.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III recently said Wednesday that the government aims to vaccinate daily some 450,000 against COVID-19 by next month as additional shots are expected to arrive.

As regards contact tracing, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said Thursday that the country's capacity remains strong, having 255,854 tracers, "which is more than sufficient for the country's needs."

According to the Department of the Interior and Local Government, there are 29,611 contact tracing teams nationwide, each composed of the municipal/city health officer and members of the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams, volunteers from Civil Society Organizations, and augmentation from the DILG.

Additional contact tracers have been deployed in Metro Manila amid the spike in new cases, said Malaya.

Asked if her remark is harsh to government, Cabral, said: "'Yan ang palagi kong sinasabi sa mga kasama ko sa DOH dati (This is what I always say to my colleagues before in DOH). I know you are doing your best. You have to do more than your best, because it's not good enough at this point."

During his March 8 briefing, ahead of the first anniversary of the imposition of community quarantine in the country, Roque said the Philippines was able to control the spread of the disease and knows how to prevent deaths.

The country on Wednesday recorded 4,387 coronavirus infections, the sixth straight day that newly-confirmed cases exceeded 4,000, pushing the total to 635,698. COVID-19-related fatalities stood at 12,866.

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A Chinese woman who arrived from Wuhan City, China, where the disease is believed to have first emerged in late 2019, was the Philippines' first confirmed COVID-19 case, reported on Jan. 30 last year.