“It’s good that the President placed the National Capital Region under Enhanced Community Quarantine.”
Make no mistake about it. There remains a constant surge in COVID-19 cases in the country and Metro Manila remains its epicenter.
In fact, last weekend marked the all-time high daily tally of reported COVID-19 cases: 17,231 for Friday, August 20; 16,694 for Saturday, August 21, the second-highest ever daily count; and 16,044 for Sunday, August 22, 16,044, the third-highest ever.
As of Sunday, the Department of Health reported 125, 900 active cases, which is 6.8 percent of the 1,839,635 total cases reported since the pandemic began.
Also as of Sunday, COVID death toll reached 31,810.
Such huge loss of people’s lives within a year and half of this health crisis can not be dwarfed by 1,681,925 total recoveries, notably 91 percent of total cases.
This is extremely difficult to shrug off, especially now that COVID deaths are being reported by the hundreds each day.
Many of us know someone who has gotten sick or succumbed to COVID.
Ironically, the grim scenario came on the heels of a two-week imposition of Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region.
It could have been worse if President Duterte did not swiftly decide to place NCR under ECQ last August 6-20.
The surge has actually slowed down during the ECQ, according to the experts belonging to the OCTA Research Group.
The growth rate of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila has decreased this past week, indicating that the two-week ECQ was effective, according to OCTA experts.
The independent inter-disciplinary group of researchers had recommended a lockdown weeks earlier as a “circuit breaker” to stop the community transmission in Metro Manila.
Apparently, the OCTA projections materialized as shown in last weekend’s record highs in reported Covid cases.
To avert further community transmission, we need to push for the vaccination of each and every person we know and those around us in order for us to attain herd immunity throughout the country, as more and more COVID vaccines arrive.
It should be the job of the DOH, with the help of the local government units, to reach out to the people at the grassroots level to inform and educate them on the benefits of vaccines and dispel misconceptions about it.
Unfortunately, it seems Filipinos can no longer rely on the DOH which has to settle the score with underpaid healthcare workers whose exodus to greener pastures abroad has begun.
On behalf of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III is also seeking a dialog with private hospital operators who are disgusted with the difficulty of transacting with the state insurer.
If private hospitals and medical facilities end partnership with PhilHealth and refuse to honor PhilHealth claims, more poor people will lose access to treatment and medical services.
Needless to say, the public health facilities are not by any stretch of imagination sufficient to provide Filipinos the needed services during the COVID crisis.
It is especially critical in the coming days after the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) headed by Duque “voted” through secret-balloting to place NCR under the less restrictive Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ).
After flip-flopping over the past three weeks, the DOH has acknowledged community transmission of the deadlier and more contagious Delta variant.
OCTA said all efforts need to be sustained “over the next four weeks” to beat the surge altogether.
In other words, the nation’s victory against COVID’s continued rampage will depend on everyone’s participation, support and cooperation at the national, local, and the grassroots level.