DOF Secretary Carlos Dominguez III
MANILA – Enabling the economy and managing risks boost the Philippine economy’s potential to recover from the pandemic, Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
During the public address of President Rodrigo R. Duterte Tuesday night, Dominguez said a combination of helping the economy by gradually opening it and requiring the public to contribute by following health protocols have shown positive results.
“Managing the risks instead of avoiding them will allow us to safely open more of the economy and help Filipinos recover their sources of income. This will also put the Philippines back on its solid growth and development trajectory,” he said.
Growth, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), in the third quarter this year remains in contraction at 11.5 percent but this is better than the -16.9 percent revised print in the previous quarter.
Dominguez said stricter quarantine measures were reimplemented in several parts of the country in the third quarter to help deter the rising coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections and aid hospitals’ critical care units.
“These actions gave us time to expand our capacity to deal with this contagion,” he said.
Dominguez said Covid-19 testing capacity reached 111,600 last Nov. 4 from zero last February after 160 laboratories were used for real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing.
Daily RT-PCR testing posted its highest last Sept. 11 at 46,597, he added.
Meanwhile, contact tracers deployed around the country number to around 253,442 as of Nov. 6, he said.
“More testing and vigilant contact tracing led to the detection of more cases as expected. But the far majority at 94 percent are asymptomatic and mildly --or mildly sick. Most importantly, we have reduced the number of future infections because we have also implemented more effective isolation protocols,” he said.
Dominguez said case fatality rate as of Nov. 7 was about 1.9 percent, way lower than the 17 percent last April.
Also, of the total 36,260 active cases during the period, only 6 percent or about 2,283 are severely or critically ill and require hospital care.
“Our recovery rate is 98 percent already, actually 98.1 percent. So that is a very good recovery rate,” he said.
He said “the country is ready to care for Covid-19 patients” since about 21,909 hospital beds around the country are dedicated for Covid-19 as of Nov. 4.
Dominguez further said these efforts are costly but added “our experience in 2020 thus far shows our resilience as a nation.”
He said the government is “aware of and are thankful for the many sacrifices the Filipino people have to make,” citing mothers juggling the demands of working and their kids’ studies, as well as health workers’ concerted efforts.
“A major part of our success in controlling virus transmission is the cooperation of people in making minimum health standards as part of their daily lives. All these small contributions go a long way in our recovery process,” he added. (PNA)
