MANILA, Philippines — After the Philippines logged a record-high daily increase in COVID-19 cases on Monday, Senator Risa Hontiveros implored the government to enforce a “health-heavy response” to the pandemic as she warned that “failure to deliver is deadly.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Hontiveros underscored the need for the government to aggressively test, trace, treat and isolate COVID-19 patients.
“Hitting nearly 7,000 COVID-19 cases in one day should serve as a wake up call to the government. Maliwanag na hindi nako-contain ang pandemya at hindi bumabagal ang transmission ng virus,” she said.
(It’s clear that the government has failed to contain the virus and that its transmission is not slowing down.)
“Kahit pagkatapos ng isang linggong MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine) sa Metro Manila, mukhang walang binago sa istratehiya ang gobyerno,” she added, stressing that imposing any type of lockdown would not be effective without a “health-heavy” approach.
(Even after one week of MECQ in Metro Manila, it seems that the government’s strategy has yet to change.)
The capital region, along with the provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, and Bulacan has been reverted to the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Aug. 4 to 18 to give medical frontliners a “timeout” to recuperate from exhaustion in battling the pandemic and to provide the government time to “regroup” and beef up its COVID-19 response.
Testing should be made available and accessible to at-risk communities and “hotspot” areas, according to the senator.
“We need to hire more contact tracers and put an effective system to it. We need to increase the capacity of our hospitals, protect our frontliners, and improve community-based care,” Hontiveros said.
“Sana wala na tayong maririnig na excuse o alternative interpretation ng datos mula sa gobyerno” she added.
(I hope we no longer hear any excuse or another alternative interpretation of data from the government.)
Earlier, Hontiveros scored the Department of Health (DOH) after it reported a drastic surge of additional recovered COVID-19 patients last July 31.
Unless the government “take the data as they are and formulate a health-centered response towards the pandemic,” Hontiveros said that cases will continue to soar, more Filipinos will get sick, and the country’s health infrastructure could collapse.
“The government should be reminded that we are dealing with people’s lives and not mere statistics,” she said.
“Mula pa noong pinaka-unang kaso ng COVID-19 sa bansa, utang na ng pamahalaan sa mga Pilipino ang isang makatao at medikal sa pagtugon sa problemang ito. No more excuses. Failure to deliver is deadly,” she added.
(Since the country saw its first COVID-19 cases, the government owes it to the people to enforce a humane and medical response to this problem. No more excuses. Failure to deliver is deadly.)
As of August 10, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached 136,638. Of the number, 68,159 have recovered while 2,294 have died.