Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. suggested the removal of playgrounds and buffets in schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students and teachers.
The chief implementer of the national action plan against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) said in a briefing Wednesday night that officials would first inspect schools in areas under the modified general community quarantine to ensure “new normal” measures were implemented.
“Una, dapat wala pong playgrounds. Kasi po pagka may playground magkakaroon po ng tinatawag na close contact at tsaka meron po tayong tinatawag na possibility na magkaroon ng transmission because mava-violate po ‘yung social distancing,” Galvez said.
(First, there should be no playground. Because when there is a playground, there will be a so-called close contact, and we also have the so-called possibility of having a transmission because social distancing can be violated.)
Galvez also proposed the removal of buffets in canteens as persons are particularly vulnerable because they remove their face masks while eating.
“Secondly, ‘yung mga canteen na merong parang mga buffet… most vulnerable po tayo kapag tayo ay kumakain kasi wala tayong mask,” Galvez said.
(Secondly, the canteens that have buffets. We are most vulnerable when we eat because we do not have masks.)
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“And normally napansin po namin… ‘yun mga ospital nagkakaroon po sila ng transmission kapag nag-dine in po sila, nag hahahalo-halo sila ng pagkain,” he added.
(And normally, we noticed hospitals have transmission when they dine in, they mix food.)
The official said that authorities are considering putting up a “model school,” which other schools could eventually emulate.
“So ‘yun po ang nakita po namin… kailangan makita po natin ‘yung re-engineering, kailangan makita po natin ‘yung protections. Thirdly, kailangan po ‘yung ibang mga dapat hindi gawin at tsaka dapat gawin,” he said.
(So that’s what we saw. We need to see the re-engineering, we need to see the protections. Thirdly, we need other things that should not be done, and more should be done.)
As of July 15, the Philippines recorded 58,850 cases of COVID-19, 1,614 deaths, and 20,976 recoveries.