MANILA - National Task Force on COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. has lauded the leadership of several areas in the Philippines for successfully implementing quarantine protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Galvez, "unity of command and unity of effort" in areas like Davao City, the Cordillera Administrative Region, Caraga region, the National Capital Region, and Regions 6, 8, 1 and 2 helped in containing the spread of the disease.
"We have seen that the areas with unity of command and unity of effort, we were able to manage and contain the spread of COVID-19," he said during a public briefing aired 1 a.m. Wednesday.
"Unity of effort and collective leadership are key to our success. Our local leaders should be with us together with the private sector," Galvez added.
He said political rivalries and lack of unity in Cebu made it more difficult for the local government to implement quarantine protocols.
"So 'yun po ang kailangan natin, kailangan pong pagkakaisa tayo po dahil kasi minsan kapag hindi nagkakaroon ng pagkakaisa, katulad po ng nangyari sa Cebu, nagkaroon ng hidwaan sa pulitika, talaga pong minsan hindi sumusunod ang mga tao," Galvez said.
(That's what we need. We need unity because sometimes if we are not united, like what happened in Cebu, they have a political issue, then people sometimes do not follow.)
Galvez, likewise, said the government needs to minimize the fatality rate so it can open the country's economy.
"We need the capacity of the national government and the LGUs to address and manage cases in order to minimize the fatality rate and deaths," he said.
According to Galvez, the country, so far, is successful in managing the number of deaths, as there is only an average of 11 deaths from June 1 to 30, and 6 deaths from July 1 to 6.
"At ayun po ang nakikita po natin (that's what we are looking at), if we address the rate of deaths, we can open our economy. 'Yun po ang pinaka-ultimate objective po natin (that is our ultimate objective), that we have to manage the death like other countries like Vietnam and Israel," he said.
The Inter-Agency Task Force earlier eased coronavirus restrictions, releasing fresh guidelines on movement and gatherings.
Metro Manila - considered the country’s virus epicenter - and other high-risk areas were placed under general community quarantine on June 1, while most other parts of the country shifted to modified GCQ on the same date.
As of Tuesday, the Philippines has a total of 47,873 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,309 deaths and 12,386 recoveries.
IATF, Carlito Galvez Jr., coronavirus, COVID-19, fatality rate, deaths, quarantine protocols