DOH supports call of medical groups for proper quarantine enforcement

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday said it supports the appeal of medical frontline workers to ensure that community quarantine is properly enforced.

This was after health frontline workers asked the government to revert to a stricter enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) as the coronavirus disease infections continue to rise nationwide.

“We support the call of our frontliners to ensure appropriate implementation of community quarantines to ensure the protection of our health workers, but while the government is taking the necessary actions to address the situation, we emphasize that it is also the duty of every citizen to ensure that our health system is not overwhelmed,” the health department said in a statement to reporters.

The DOH also said it is also having a dialogue with medical workers to resolve the health workers’ issues on strategies concerning the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

“We are currently in dialogue with our medical frontliners to discuss the best steps forward, and in doing so we will ensure to strike a balance among all the important factors that we have to take into account,” the health department said in a statement to reporters.

Nevertheless, DOH said it stands with health workers for their sacrifices since the pandemic began.

“The DOH is grateful to the medical societies for their continued trust in the department and for their support in coming up with solutions to the ongoing health crisis,” read the statement.

Earlier in a press conference of the Philippine Colleges of Physicians, Philippine Medical Association (PMA) president Dr. Jose Santiago said the stricter coronavirus lockdown will address “hospital workforce efficiency, failure of case finding and isolation,  failure of contact tracing and quarantine, transportation safety, workplace safety, public compliance with self-protection, social amelioration.”

Malacañang rejected this appeal, saying lockdowns alone will not stop the further spread of COVID-19.

The coronavirus disease infected 98,354 people. Of the number, 65,178 recovered while 2,023 have died.

/MUF