Solon demands more sufficient medical facilities vs COVID-19

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro during the weekly press briefing at the House of Representatives on Nov 21, 2019. INQUIRER.net file photo / Noy Morcoso

MANILA, Philippines — ACT Teachers Representative France Castro called on the national government to establish more medical facilities and hospitals to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic that has so far infected more than 1,000 individuals in the Philippines, nearly two weeks since the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.

Castro, who’s also the Assistant Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, demanded that the government should provide at least one quarantine facility per barangay for persons under investigation and persons under monitoring, sufficient number of treatment and isolation facilities per region and have a designated or referral hospitals available in every region for COVID-19 patients.

It’s also been nearly a week since President Rodrigo Duterte received emergency powers from the legislative branch to address the COVID-19 situation, something Castro viewed as a slow response.

As of Friday, there have been 803 COVID-19 cases in the Philippines with a death toll of 54 while 31 have recovered. The number ballooned on Saturday with 1,075 cases.

“It has been almost 2 weeks since President Duterte placed Metro Manila under community quarantine, 12 days since the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon and Congress already granted the President powers,” said Castro. “Yet, there are still no clear and concrete plans for additional medical facilities to help aid our health workers in the battle against COVID-19.”

“The people are still waiting for the government’s concrete medical plan on how it will deal with this pandemic. All the Duterte administration has done is to impose curfews, checkpoints and implement penalties on those they think are violating their rules while elected officials get away with it.”

Congress voted 284-9-0 while the Senate has a 12-0 vote that passed the bill giving Duterte emergency powers.

Castro said that the Duterte administration could’ve prevented the massive spread of the virus in the Philippines but, with the current situation, providing communities with adequate medical facilities should be the priority.

“These facilities should have corresponding sufficient supplies and personnel with adequate compensation and hazard pay for the health worker per treatment facility and hospital,” said Castro.

For the most part, the national government’s response was beefing up military and police presence to enforce the lockdown but Castro sees this as counterintuitive and that medical procedures must be given attention.

“The public does not accept that this has been treated as a military operation by the Duterte administration,” said Castro. “Where is the medical solution like a free and systematic mass testing, hiring of health personnel, personal protective equipment for the frontliners, the increase in dedicated hospitals, and production and use of testing kits?”

“Where’s the comprehensive medical plan against COVID-19? The public has a concrete call. The Duterte administration just has to listen and implement this.”

Edited by JPV