By Quian Vencel Galut

PHOTO: PCOO-OPS

As the Philippines encounters its “record-breaking” COVID-19 cases mainly due to detection of the highly contagious Delta variant, Malacañang said the country's response is still “on track.”

“I would say we are on track,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a media briefing on Tuesday 24 August.

The Department of Health on Monday recorded 18,332 COVID-19 cases, a few days after Metro Manila implemented an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from 6 to 20 August. 4,805 cases were recorded in Metro Manila.

Roque pointed out that the reason behind the ECQ implementation in Metro Manila was to not exceed 20,000 COVID-19 cases daily.



“We are within projection, for as long as we do not exceed 20,000 [new cases] per day. That is the projection,” Roque pointed out In a press briefing. “Kung ang iniisip n’yo y’ong ECQ will result in a drastic reduction in cases, hindi po ’yan ang projection.” 

Most of the untraced Delta variant cases came from the capital region and its nearby provinces, DOH said on Monday. 

“Unlike ‘yong unang variant po, talaga namang nakakahawa itong variant na ito,” Roque referring to the Delta variant. "Hindi naman tayo puwedeng mag-total lockdown na naman dahil kinakailangan naman makapagtrabaho nang hindi magutom ang karamihan ng ating mga kababayan.”

“But we are on track by way of our projections,” he stressed.

According to the official data of DOH, a total of 1,869,691 COVID-19 cases were now recorded in the Philippines, a fifth of which were detected over the last 40 days. About 32,000 individuals with COVID-19 infection have died in the country.