Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Health experts have criticized the Philippine government’s policy of reducing social distancing when riding public transportation. This policy is said to be able to make the Covid-19 corona virus even higher in this neighboring country.
Starting Monday (14/9/2020), the Philippine government requires every passenger to wear a face shield and mask and a minimum social distance of 75 centimeters (cm). On 28 September this social distancing was reduced to 50cm and 12 October to 30cm. The World Health Organization (WHO) itself has set a minimum standard to maintain a distance of 1 meter.
In addition to cutting distances, the Ministry of Transportation has asked users of public transportation services to be alert when vehicles are full and suggest riding other vehicles.
“This will be risky, reckless and contract-intuitive and delay curve smoothing,” said Anthony Leachon, former President of the Philippine College of Physicians, as quoted by Reuters, Monday (14/9/2020). “Even wearing face shields and masks, reducing social distancing will be dangerous.”
“It’s likely we’ll see an increase in cases and our recovery will be slow if we do this now,” said epidemiologist Antonio Dans.
Anthony Dans is a member of an alliance of health professionals that last month appealed for the Manila lockdown. He asked for this policy to stop the accumulation of Covid-19 patients in hospitals.
The Philippines’ social distancing policy is one way to help the economy bounce back after contracting 5.5% this year, the worst contraction in 35 years. Manila’s transportation system is known to be very congested.
“Reopening the economy will never happen unless the transmission of the virus is controlled,” added Anthony Leachon, who is also a former adviser to the government’s COVID-19 task force.
According to Worldometers data, as of Monday (9/14/2020), the number of positive cases of Covid-19 in the Philippines has reached 265,888 cases in which 4,630 patients died. Currently, there are 53,754 active cases.
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