MANILA, Philippines — Rather than just relying on an extension of the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and four nearby provinces to curb the surge in COVID-19 cases, the government should implement contact tracing, mass testing, expansion of quarantine facilities and improvement of the country’s health-care system, a Metro Manila mayor said on Sunday.
Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said that, if contact tracing and mass testing efforts were more aggressive and proactive, there could be early detection and isolation of cases.
“The extension of [the lockdown] will not exclusively solve the problem of the increase in COVID-19 [cases] … Particularly, there should be an improvement in the number of virus and nonvirus bed capacity in both public and private hospitals, and the [Department of Health] should be held accountable,” Teodoro told the Inquirer.
He added that the national government should also put more effort in keeping workplaces safe and virus-free for daily wage earners.
“I think the [lockdown] extension will only result in an increase in the number of individuals who will go hungry and jobless,” Teodoro said.
One-week extension
On Saturday, Malacañang announced a one-week extension of the strictest lockdown level in Metro Manila and the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and Rizal.
But hospitals and isolation facilities remained at full capacities in Metro Manila.
Sen. Joel Villanueva on Sunday said it is high time that President Duterte received unadulterated reports on the ground in the fight against COVID-19 to realize the gravity of the crisis unfolding in the country instead of relying on the word of his pandemic managers.
“Our unsolicited and respectful suggestion is for the President to get unfiltered reports from those on the front lines, from hospital directors who can give him the true picture at the ground,” Villanueva said.
“Vice President Leni Robredo has urged the government’s pandemic managers anew to establish clear goalposts and strict timelines to measure how well the country is faring under the new lockdown measures.
In her radio show on Sunday, Robredo again asked the government to lay down clear, strategic plans—not just general directives for testing and treatment—to fight the surge of virus cases gripping the country.
This means setting weekly goals to ramp up testing and detection of COVID-19 cases, vaccination of front-liners and senior citizens, she said.
Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo proposed a “household lockdown” to arrest the surge in COVID-19 cases, particularly in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
In a statement on Sunday, Quimbo said the current policies of the health department “are clearly not working,” as the country reported a record-high 12,576 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend.
She proposed a “more localized” lockdown to curb the virus surge.
“Households with at least one member who is COVID positive must be put on lockdown and all basic needs will be delivered to them with the assistance of the local governments,” she said.