Philippines could have 75,000 COVID-19 cases in 5 months- Año

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año warned yesterday the Philippines could have 75,000 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in five months if the country fails to contain its spread.

Citing studies of the World Health Organization, Año said COVID-19 positive patient could potentially infect around 100 people if not immediately isolated.

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“Kapag hindi tayo gumawa ng (If we don’t take) drastic actions, in five months we (could) have 75,000 positive cases,” Año said in an interview over radio station dzBB.

As of this writing, the Philippines has 140 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 with 12 fatalities.

The DILG chief took Italy as an example. Italy has been placed on a nationwide lockdown after the deadly virus spread exponentially.

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Philippines could have 75,000 COVID-19 cases in 5 months- Año

“Ganyan din ’yung nangyari sa Italy noon [Same thing happened in Italy before]. Kaunti lang numero, sabi nila [The number is small, people said],” he said.

Año said it could no longer be denied that the coronavirus already contaminated Metro Manila with the increasing number of people getting infected with COVID-19 each day.

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“Nandito ’yung ating contamination (Our contamination is here). We cannot deny it anymore,” he said in a separate interview over radio station dzMM.

The DILG chief again appealed to Metro Manila residents to follow precautionary measures the government has set to during the 30-day community quarantine or lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus.