Doctors urge public to observe health measures
The Philippines’ internists on Sunday urged strict compliance with public health measures to arrest the increase in COVID-19 cases, as the country cannot afford another lockdown.
“How do we deal with the current surge? We cannot endure another lockdown because of its dire socioeconomic impact. We need to change our behavior,” the Philippine College of Physicians said in a statement.
The doctors’ group said cases were increasing nearly as fast as the infection rates in July last year when daily cases were hitting nearly 5,000 and overburdened health workers cried for “timeout.”
“We let our guard down. More health-care workers are getting sick, hospital beds are again becoming less available. The [medical] front-liners who haven’t fully recovered from exhaustion might struggle again to face another battle,” the group said.
“We still need to intensify our compliance [with] the minimum health standards to prevent further spread [of the coronavirus], knowing that [its] variants coexist. Stay home if you can. Continue adherence to the minimum health standards even while at home. Wash your hands. Wear your mask and face shield. Keep distance from others,” it said.
On Sunday, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 4,899 coronavirus infections, the second highest single-day count this year and the third consecutive day of more than 4,000 cases. The additional infections brought the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 621,498.
The DOH reported 63 more deaths, 16 of whom were previously tagged as recovered, raising the death toll to 12,829.
This was the fourth straight day of more than 50 reported deaths.
Following its “mass recovery” system, the DOH declared 13,371 people with mild or no symptoms as recovered after observing a two-week quarantine, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 560,512.
The deaths and recoveries left the country with 48,157 active cases, of which 91.8 percent were mild, 4.2 percent asymptomatic, 0.8 percent moderate, 1.6 percent severe, and 1.6 percent critical.
To suppress the spike in infections, Metro Manila is imposing a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Monday and deploying more than 9,000 police officers to enforce the stay-at-home order.
Curfew in Metro
Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, officer in charge of the Philippine National Police, on Sunday said the Highway Patrol Group and standby support forces may be deployed to help enforce the curfew, which would be in effect up to March 31.
Exempted from the curfew are health workers; emergency cases; drivers and vendors transporting and selling essential goods; essential workers; journalists; travelers going to or coming from the airport; drivers of private shuttle services; police officers, soldiers and other emergency responders; security guards, and fast-food store takeout employees.
Eleazar said nearly 400 checkpoints would be set up in strategic areas of the metropolis, with mobile patrol officers and barangay security officers manning them.
Vaccination drive
In addition to helping local governments implement the curfew, Eleazar said, the police officers would also enforce minimum public health measures to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.
Eleazar reminded policemen to “observe maximum tolerance and respect the people’s rights.”
“We will be monitoring your compliance,” he said.
New coronavirus infections flare as the government presses a vaccination drive, beginning with hospital staff to keep the health service working through the crisis.
In a statement issued on Sunday shortly after returning from India, National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government was working to inoculate 1.7 million health workers using 1.1 million doses of vaccines from the World Health Organization-led supply pool COVAX and 600,000 doses of a vaccine donated by China.
Galvez said vaccination of the general population would begin once more vaccines became available.
He returned from negotiations with Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, for short and long-term vaccine supplies for the Philippines.
“Another team is expected to fly to Russia to [conduct further study] on the vaccine produced by Gamaleya,” Galvez said, referring to the Russian vaccine Sputnik V.
The government has deployed 90 percent of its vaccine supply to hospitals, Galvez’s deputy, Vivencio Dizon, said on Sunday.
Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, executive vice president of the University of the Philippines, said 178,158 health workers had received their first dose of the two-dose vaccines as of Saturday.
He said vaccinations should be 390,000 people a day for the next nine months to achieve the government’s goal of inoculating 70 million people by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity.
—WITH REPORTS FROM JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND MARICAR CINCO INQ
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