Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 30)— As the country sees a rise in COVID-19 cases, a coalition of healthcare workers said authorities should not solely rely on imposing lockdowns.
In a virtual forum on Friday, the Coalition for People’s Right to Health stressed the need for early detection, aggressive contact tracing, and mass testing.
“If we’re going to implement a lockdown na pareho lang sa dati nating inimplement, sobrang short term lang ng kanyang effects na hindi talaga siya makakatulong sa overall response,” said Dr. Joshua San Pedro, the group’s co-convenor.
[Translation: If we’re going to implement a lockdown that’s the same as what we’ve implemented before, its effects will only be short term that it won’t really help in our overall response.]
San Pedro also underscored the importance of strengthening the country’s healthcare system.
The country’s pandemic task force announced on the same day that Metro Manila will remain under general community quarantine — with “heightened and additional” restrictions — until August 5. The region, however, will revert to the strictest enhanced community quarantine from August 6 to 20.
This comes amid the call of officials for the imposition of a stricter quarantine measure due to the threat of the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant.
Hospitals understaffed
Meanwhile, coalition member Filipino Nurses United said government hospitals remain understaffed.
FNU said based on its informal survey, government hospitals typically have a shortage of 40-50 nurses based on their bed capacity.
With the pandemic raging for over a year now, it said nurses are in a constant state of stress and fatigue.
The group also renewed its demand for decent salaries, benefits, and compensation for frontliners catching the virus.
“Napakahirap po na makuha ito ng mga nurses at iba pang healthcare workers sa dami ng requirements at napakatagal na proseso,” FNU secretary-general Jocelyn Andamo said.
[Translation: The nurses and other healthcare workers are having a hard time getting this due to the many requirements and long processes.]
The Health Department has so far confirmed 216 cases of the Delta variant in the country. Overall, the Philippines has reported a total of 1,572,287 coronavirus infections.
