ni Ronalyn Seminiano Reonico | January 26, 2021
Binawi ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ang desisyon ng Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) na luwagan ang age restriction sa mga lugar na nasa ilalim ng modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) at kailangang manatili pa rin umano ang mga batang edad 10-14 sa loob ng bahay dahil sa banta ng UK variant ng COVID-19 sa bansa.
Pahayag ni P-Duterte, “You just return to your homes for now… The older ones are hard to manage, but those 10, 11, 12 [years old] can glue their attention to the TV the whole day.
“I am sorry. Mine is just a precaution. I am afraid because the new strain strikes the young children.”
Aniya pa, “Just to be sure and in our desire to protect our people, I am constrained to reimpose the 10 to 14 [restriction]. Not at this time. It’s a sacrifice for the parents and children. It would limit their movements.”
Samantala, ayon sa Metro Manila Council, maging ang 17 mayors ay hindi rin pabor na payagan nang lumabas ang mga bata.
Saad pa ni Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez, council chief, “Metro Manila is under GCQ so the task force allowed the local governments in Metro Manila to assess if they would allow the age [restrictions] to be relaxed.
“The consensus in one of our meetings was almost everyone was against relaxing the age bracket. But despite that, we also sought the recommendation, comment, advice of medical experts, pediatric consultants.
“What [the medical experts] said was it’s not advisable to lower the age bracket.
“According to [the health experts], kids are superspreaders. When they catch the virus, they’re asymptomatic and appear healthy, but can easily and surely infect the elderly.”
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