Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 25) — Some highly urbanized cities have seen a spike in coronavirus cases after shifting to the lowest form of quarantine due to lack of healthcare facilities in their areas, an official said Friday.
“Isa sa mga nakikita namin ay iyong mga nag-modified general community quarantine na cities ay biglang nag-spike,” COVID-19 response chief implementer Carlito Galvez said in a briefing, referring to Bacolod, Iligan and General Santos.
“We found out na iyong kanilang mga structural facilities ay talagang medyo may kakulangan,” Galvez added.
[Translation: The cities somehow lack in structural facilities.]
With this, the country’s coronavirus task force will now focus on capacitating highly urbanized areas to “really address the surge,” Galvez said.
The inter-agency coronavirus task force placed Iligan City and Bacolod back to the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine up until the end of the month to curb the spread of the virus. Non-essential travel and activities in areas under MECQ are prohibited.
Meanwhile, General Santos is still under MGCQ, where even leisure activities are allowed, subject to strict infection control measures.
Galvez also threw his support to the Department of Health’s call for additional budget for its program, which aims to upgrade the country’s health infrastructure such as hospitals.
Earlier, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the DOH has submitted to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) a ₱45 billion budget proposal for its Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) for 2021. However, the DBM has only authorized a ₱4.7 billion allocation to the project, according to Duque.
He said another ₱5.5 billion was authorized, but it is under the unprogrammed fund, which means the money could only be released if there are foreign loans or additional revenues.
Duque then asked lawmakers to add ₱10 billion to the HFEP allocation, as he noted the budget cut may negatively impact the implementation of the universal healthcare program as well as the COVID-19 response.
