THE draft guidelines for the “new normal” are expected to be presented before the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on April 20, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said.
The guidelines are being drafted by the IATF Technical Working Group (TWG) for Anticipatory and Forward Planning, which is chaired by the National Economic and Development Authority.
“By next week mayroon na pong i p-present sa amin sa IATF ng maliit na grupo na inatasan ni Pangulo para tignan kung anong mangyayari after April 30,” said Nograles, who is the spokesperson of the IATF.
“Magiging masinsinan at malalim na pag-uusapan ang mga bagong dos and don’ts After april 30,” he added.
The enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, which hosts more than half of the Philippine population, will end on April 30.
Nograles said the IATF may issue guidelines for the “new normal” after April 30 based on the report of the TWG.
“So ang mensahe ko na lamang po after April 30, we will try to set up the guidelines for the ‘new normal’ all things being considered kung maganda ang makita natin within the next 14 days ,” Nograles said.
“So kailangan po natin ng kooperasyon ng bawat isa to make the decision easier for us the more na may mga pasaway the more difficult it is to make the decision,” he added.
Nograles said it is still too early to say whether the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in the country has been contained.
As more people were tested for the novel coronavirus, the rate of infection also decreases.
“Dati kasi 17 to 18 percent ang nagiging positive out of the number of tests—but there was a slide that was presented to us yesterday naging 15 percent nalang, so it may be also a function of more testing,” Nograles said.
“The bigger syempre the number of people being tested then ‘ yung mga nagiging positive bumababa na rin but it’s to early to tell,” he added.
As of April 15, there were 5,453 persons found positive for the novel coronavirus in the Philippines. The novel coronavirus, or Sars-CoV-2, causes Covid-19.
Of the total, 349 had died while 353 have recovered from the disease.
The TWG drafting the “new normal” guidelines was created through an IATF resolution on March 27, 2020.
Aside from Neda which chairs the group, members are the Departments of Science and Technology, Trade and Industry, Education, Health, Budget and Management, Finance, Agriculture, Tourism, and Information and Communications Technology; National Intelligence Coordinating Agency; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; and University of the Philippines Resilience Institute. (SunStar Philippines)