Galvez: Any leader will struggle vs COVID-19 as PH healthcare system was never ready

MANILA, Philippines — Citing the “dynamics” of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the country’s devolved healthcare system, National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) head Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Wednesday that any leader will struggle in handling the present health crisis.

Galvez said this after Vice President Leni Robredo responded to the taunting of President Rodrigo Duterte, saying that there is more to fighting the health crisis than just by wearing face masks and waiting for a vaccine.

“Ang ating problema ay very dynamic. Ang behavior ng pandemya ay hindi natin ma-predict considering na lahat tayo, buong bansa at buong daigdig ay talagang nangangapa sa pagresponde sa COVID-19,” Galvez said in an online media briefing.

(Our problem is very dynamic. We cannot predict the behavior of the pandemic considering that all of us, the whole country and even the whole world are really struggling to respond to COVID-19.)

Galvez said there are several “variables” to consider in the handling of the crisis, which include the “discipline” and the compliance of the public to the health standards set to curtail the spread of the infectious respiratory disease.

“Marami po talagang nagviviolate kahit sinong country po ang magkaroon ng ganito po ay talagang mahihirapan tayo lalo na ‘yung mga densely populated areas ay hindi tayo makapag-observe ng social distancing,” he said.

(Many are really violating the health standards, any country will struggle especially in our densely populated areas, we cannot observe social distancing.)

The former military chief also cited the country’s healthcare system’s lack of capability to respond to the pandemic.

“Kahit sino pong presidente, kahit sino pong leader at kahit sino po ang secretary mahihirapan po dahil hindi maka-cope ang ating mga structures at ating (healthcare) system doon sa demand na kinakailangan ng COVID-19,” Galvez stressed.

(Whoever is president, whoever is the leader and whoever is secretary will have a hard time because our structures and our healthcare system cannot cope with the demand required by COVID-19.)

He then asked the Vice President to look into the situation on the ground first before making any comments on the government’s COVID-19 response.

“Marami po tayong deficiencies, unang una po kulang talaga tayo ng nurses saka doctors based doon sa data na binigay sa atin ng WHO standard. ‘Yun pong kakulangan na ‘yun ay isa sa talagang nakita natin na negative impact sa paghandle natin ng COVID-19,” Galvez said.

(We have many deficiencies, first of all we really lack nurses and doctors based on the data given to us by the WHO. That shortcoming is one of the problems that affected our handling of COVID-19.)

“Napakarami po nating deficiencies, we have to accept na hindi po talaga tayo nakapaghanda. Our system is not prepared, any country hindi po talaga nakapagprepare. At nakikita po natin na karamihan po ng magagaling at mayayamang countries, they were not able to address the rising up of cases,” he added.

(We have so many deficiencies, we have to accept that we are not really prepared. Our system is not prepared, any country is not really prepared. And we see that most of the powerful and rich countries, they were not able to address the rising up of cases.)

The infectious respiratory disease, which was first detected in the Chinese province of Hubei late last year, has so far infected over 31 million people worldwide.

In the Philippines, the total COVID-19 caseload has reached 291,789 as of Tuesday, including 230,643 recoveries and 5,049 deaths.

JPV