Palace admits Philippines won't beat UP prediction

MANILA, Philippines — There will be no declaration of victory for Malacañang this time as it admitted that the Philippines won't beat a University of the Philippines prediction that it would have 85,000 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases by the end of the month.

There are already more than 83,000 infected persons in the country, the second in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, which has about 102,000. The number of infections continues to rise by the hundreds everyday but officials have claimed such a trend is expected due to an expanded testing capacity.

Last month, presidential spokesman Harry Roque was heavily criticized for saying that the Philippines had "won" because the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines did not reach 40,000 by the end of June. The number of infections in the country was about 37,500 during that time. Roque later on clarified that he does not view UP as the enemy and that he was just emphasizing that ordinary people should do their part in fighting the pandemic.

Speaking to CNN Philippines Wednesday, Roque said critics of his remark already got what they wanted.  

"Well, I’m sad to say, we’re not. And to those who were… made fun of my excitement, well, you got what you wanted. The forecast happened, and I see no reason why we should celebrate," Roque said when asked whether the Philippines could still beat the UP forecast of 85,000 cases by July 31.  

"It’s very sad, but as I have conferred with Professor Ranjit Rye, we should always aim to beat the forecast because we have the tools," he added.

Roque, nevertheless, maintained that the government's response to the pandemic was not an absolute failure.  

"I think we’ve been rather successful because we’ve limited mortality rate, and in the end that’s what matters – how many people perished because of the pandemic. I think that strides also in treating COVID, has contributed to this fact that mortality is still way below the world threshold," the Palace spokesman said.  

"We can only look at our former colonial master and look at the mess that they’re in, the United States ‘no and even England. We’re far shot from the crisis that they have in the US, in England and the rest of Europe," he added.

Roque reiterated that the number of infections in the Philippines would have reached 3.5 million if the government did not act on the virus.

"So, people, let’s give ourselves credit because it’s not just (the) government that succeeded; it’s the Filipino people that succeeded to be where we are," he added.

'Major changes'

Roque said the government's measures against the pandemic would be "invigorated" by further expanding testing efforts and building more isolation facilities.

"Things will not be the same, there will be major changes in our response to the pandemic," Roque said.

"The people will now see the difference in the response that we will have. It is now thoroughly invigorated and part of it is we build capacity and we now have the capacity to do what we wanted from the very beginning. The people will see that there will be expanded targeted testing, beyond numbers that they probably would not have imagined," he added.

Roque said the government aims to build "around a thousand isolation facilities" and is ready to book school dormitories if these quarantine centers are still not enough.

"We will actually attempt to isolate everyone who will turn out positive, because the experience of the other countries is it’s only in this manner that they were able to control the spread of the disease," he added.

"Efforts will have to be done to reduce the numbers, and if possible, to do away completely with community transmission which can be done under these contemplated massive targeting testing and invigorated tracing, as well as expanded isolation facilities."

Roque also expects the number of tests conducted daily to increase as the government is eyeing pooled testing, wherein a testing kit can be used to test ten to 20 persons.  

"Right now, we have reached 30,000 more or less a day. But we are going to get more... The pool testing will expand our test, actual testing to at least times ten," he added.