Palace ready for any eventuality amid coronavirus outbreak

VIRUS WARD Sta. Ana Hospital in Manila opened its Manila Infectious Disease Control Center for patients with COVID-19 as the Department of Health raised the alert level to code red on Saturday. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is declaring a state of public health emergency on Monday on the recommendation of health officials following confirmation of the local transmission of the new coronavirus that is sickening and killing thousands of people across the globe.

In a radio interview on Sunday, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte would sign the declaration on Monday and that he would release it during his regular press briefing in Malacañang.

“We are ready for any eventuality,” Panelo said.

On Saturday, the Duterte approved the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH) for a declaration of a state of public health emergency after it reported a sixth case of COVID-19, the pneumonia-like disease caused by the SARS-Cov-2, a new coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan, capital of Hubei province in central China, late last year.

The virus has sickened more than 100,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,500, mostly in China.

PH cases

The Philippines’ sixth case is the 59-year-old wife of the fifth case, a 62-year-old diabetic from Cainta, Rizal province, who has not traveled to any of the more than 90 countries where the new coronavirus has spread since it emerged at a wildlife market in Wuhan in late December.

The fourth case is a lawyer who traveled to Japan in February and tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday. He was transferred from St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City to the Regional Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City where he was reported to be in stable condition.

The first three cases were Chinese nationals from Wuhan who vacationed in the Philippines in January. One of them died in early February. The other two had recovered and had returned to China.

Some local governments called off classes in schools following news of President Duterte’s declaration on Monday, although Health Secretary Francisco Duque III did not recommend the closure of schools. (See story in Metro, Page A15.)Panelo said the matter was up to school authorities to decide. “That’s their discretion. If they feel schoolchildren are safe, they can do that,” he said.

He also said he did not see a need to suspend work in government offices as these were not crowded places.

Malacañang will also not be shut to protect Mr. Duterte from the virus, he said.

“Why lock down Malacañang? It’s not a crowded area. They will only do that to public gatherings, where people conglomerate,” Panelo said.

He said the declaration would not affect Duterte’s activities. “No cancellations as far as I know,” he said.

Delayed reaction

Vice President Leni Robredo said the national government should lay down clear guidelines for local governments to follow in halting the spread of the coronavirus.

She expressed disappointment over the delayed action of the Duterte administration, noting that Duque recommended the declaration of a state of public health emergency in a letter to Malacañang dated Feb. 21.

“While there is a commitment to declare, the order will only be released [on Monday],” Robredo told reporters on Sunday.

“I hope it will be released at the soonest possible time, so that we would know its scope,” she said. “How would the funding work? What are the protocols for local government[s] to better respond? There’s so much to be worked on.”

Robredo said she hoped the government would be transparent about the local transmission of the coronavirus, following remarks by Sen. Panfilo Lacson that the DOH could be underreporting information about information about the disease.

“When you underreport, you only expose our countrymen to more danger,” Robredo said. “It is very important that we know where the incidences are, since the transmission is very fast.”

‘Massaging the data’

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate also called on the DOH to be transparent about coronavirus cases and refrain from “massaging the data” in its reporting positive cases in the country.

“We do not want a repeat of what happened with the government handling of the African swine [fever],” Zarate said, recalling the official declaration that the outbreak of the hog disease had already been contained only for more cases to erupt in different parts of the country.

“The DOH should allow hospitals that have treated confirmed COVID-19 [cases] to announce these developments like what Cardinal Santos Medical Center did so… the public would not feel that the department is controlling the release of information,” Zarate said.

Duque criticized the private hospital in San Juan City for announcing that it had admitted the patient who was considered to be the first case of coronavirus local transmission in the Philippines.

Zarate said the government’s declaration of a state of public health emergency was “clearly a belated reactive measure.”

“[The] DOH should have earlier asserted the budgetary requirement to prepare for the impending health disaster,” he said.

“The testing kits with complete reagents, additional protective equipment for health workers, additional human resources for epidemio¬logical surveillance and contact tracing should have been done and acquired when the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed,” he added.

“The Office of the President has billions of budget for intelligence and travel. PhilHealth also has billions for the supposed universal health care, but billions were slashed from the budget of DOH hospitals,” Zarate said.

“We strongly caution the Duterte administration, though, from using or taking advantage of this pandemic to secure onerous loans that the Filipino taxpayers would be the one to shoulder in the future,” he said.

Competitive bidding

Duque claimed that the declaration would enable the government to dispense with competitive bidding in purchasing medicines and medical equipment to be used in fighting the coronavirus.

But Sen. Franklin Drilon on Sunday belied Duque’s claim, saying: “There is nothing in the law that says the procurement will be set aside.[Public] bidding is still required.”

Drilon said the DOH should have already purchased medicines for communicable diseases related to COVID-19 like pneumonia.

Commenting on Duque’s decision to withhold some information on the latest coronavirus infections in the country, Drilon pointed out the law required the DOH to observe full transparency in dealing with epidemics and other public health emergencies.

The law only prohibits the release of private information of patients, but not information about the hospitals and medical centers where the patients are cared for, he said.

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara appealed for calm, saying the confirmed cases of the coronavirus “did not come as too much of a surprise” as large numbers of travelers fly in and out of the country.

“Information is the most essential element in addressing the situation and preventing unwanted behavior and reactions,” Angara said.

On Saturday, the World Health Organization (WHO) also appealed for calm, saying Filipinos should not demand that every case of respiratory tract infection be tested for the new coronavirus.

“That is not a possibility for any country,” said Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative in the Philippines.

Assistant Health Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said only people who had traveled to other countries and were showing symptoms would be tested for the coronavirus.—With reports from Jhesset O. Enano, DJ Yap and Marlon Ramos