The head of the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines called on Filipinos to stay at home as the country tallied the most number of new COVID-19 cases in a single day on Tuesday, August 4.
“Staying at home is the only way everyone can show solidarity and compassion to our frontliners,” said Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, chairman of the National Secretariat for Social Action of the bishops’ conference.
“Let’s do everything we can to help [health workers],” added the bishop.
On August 1, medical societies in the country appealed for a two week “time out” to address “healthcare workforce deficiency, failure of case finding and isolation, failure of contact tracing and quarantine, transportation safety, and workplace safety public compliance.”
President Rodrigo Duterte immediately placed the national capital, the provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and Rizal under “modified enhanced community quarantine” starting August 4.
Church leaders also responded by suspending public liturgical services in their respective dioceses.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines jumped to 112,593 on Tuesday as the Health department reported a new single-day record-high of 6,352 new cases.
There were 11 new fatalities due to the coronavirus disease listed, bringing the death toll to 2,115. Recoveries increased to 240, raising the total to 66,049.
The latest government data showed that almost half or 3,139 of the new reported cases were from Metro Manila.
The Health department earlier said it was monitoring 887 clusters nationwide, 741 of which were found in communities. Of these clusters, 315 were in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the outbreak.
