DAPAT umanong palawigin ng dalawang linggo ang Enhanced Community Quarantine dahil masasayang lang ang nagawa ng gobyerno sa premature na pag-aalis nito.
Ayon kay House committee on ways and means chairman at Albay Rep. Joey Salceda mas mahihirapan ang ekonomiya kapag lalong lumala ang problema sa coronavirus disease 2019.
“Ako po ang unang mamomroblemang maghanap ng pondo bilang Ways and Means Chair kapag hindi maganda ang ekonomiya. But a premature lifting of the ECQ would not be good for the economy. It will not fulfill our public health objectives. And it risks getting us back to square zero in terms of our progress in fighting this disease,” ani Salceda.
Sa pag-aaral ni Salceda at ng kanyang mga tauhan dalawa ang critical factor sa paglaban sa COVID-19– mobility at “isolation tendency”.
“The ECQ has significantly reduced mobility. You can see that in reduced energy consumption and in reduced demand for fuel. So, people are no longer moving around carrying the virus as much as they would have,” paliwanag ni Salceda. “The second critical factor is what we call isolation tendency. It’s how much you isolate confirmed and suspected cases from the rest of the population. And that only increases once you know who are Covid-positive in the first place, through mass testing.”
Ayon kay Salceda ang mga kilalang personalidad sa medical community ay hindi nagpapanukala na iklian ang lockdown at nagrerekomenda ng anim na linggong lockdown upang maiwasan ang premature lifting.
Ang Hubei ay anim hanggang walong linggo ang lockdown samantalang ang Northern Italy ay naka-lockdown mula pa noong Marso 9.
“Let’s also look at historical evidence. The worst pandemic the world has seen in the 20th century was the Spanish Flu. A comparison of measures showed that New York, which imposed a lockdown very early, had the lowest death rate among major cities in the US East Coast. They did it for 12 weeks. Sharp increases in death rates took place when San Francisco lifted its quarantine after 4 weeks. St. Louis had to do it for a total of 10 weeks. 5 weeks initially, but they lifted the quarantine prematurely, so they had to do it all over again. That’s what I’m trying to avoid – the need to do it all over again.”
Sumulat si Salceda kay Pangulong Duterte upang ipahayag ang kanyang panawagan.