COVID-19 transition plan coming next week – Duque

COMING AND GOING | And so Filipinos have to move on — like these travelers at a bus terminal in Baguio City — but with caution and lessons learned from the pandemic. The government says it is preparing a road map for key sectors to move in sync in this direction. (EV ESPIRITU / PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER)

MANILA, Philippines — The government is targeting next week for the completion of a “very comprehensive” COVID-19 transition plan, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

“This is something we would launch as soon as all the inputs from the different sectors have been submitted. This is really a very comprehensive map on shifting to the new normal,” Duque said on Wednesday in a television interview.

He said the transition plan would “hopefully be finished by [midweek] next week.”

Duque said he had met with the National Economic and Development Authority and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases to discuss the strategy for various sectors on how to “live with” the coronavirus.

He said the plan’s major components included public health, security, and the economy.

“I think that’s an important philosophical underpinning: that the virus is here to stay, so we have to live with it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the fourth national vaccination drive has been tentatively scheduled on March 10-12, with healthcare workers bringing the jabs directly to homes and workplaces.

The theme of the fourth installment of “Bayanihan Bakunahan” is “March to Vaccinate,” Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said.

Back to 50th spot

From being considered the worst last month, the Philippines has improved in the ranking of countries being evaluated for their pandemic response, as the Department of Health (DOH) reported 866 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

The figure represented the lowest daily tally this year, but eight labs did not submit data.

The Philippines regained the 50th spot among 53 countries included in the latest COVID-19 Resilience Ranking of the media and data company Bloomberg for February. It was in that spot in the report released last December.

It scored 51.8, up from last month’s 48.3 when it dropped to the bottom slot.

“The Omicron wave is abating, with more countries accelerating their shift this month to living with the virus, a key differentiator among the best and worst places to be during the COVID era,” Bloomberg said in its latest report.

Bloomberg’s Resilience Ranking is a monthly snapshot of where the coronavirus is being handled the most effectively, with the least social and economic upheaval.

Among the indicators used to rank the countries are their levels of success in virus containment, quality of health care, vaccination coverage, overall mortality, and progress toward restarting travel.

‘Best, worst places’

Bloomberg’s report for February, titled “The Best and Worst Places to Be as the Omicron Threat Fades,” captures how the world’s biggest economies are responding to the once-in-a-generation threat.

According to Bloomberg, it removed the positive test indicator as a component as more countries shifted to treating the virus on a similar level to influenza and testing became limited.

“In an era of high vaccination and normalization, the rate is no longer the red flag that it used to be,” it said.

The Philippines scored low in certain indicators, including vaccine doses administered, lockdown severity and flight capacity. It noticeably improved in terms of opening travel routes for vaccinated persons.

But while it improved its ranking, it was still below other Southeast Asian nations on the list, like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The United Arab Emirates remains No. 1 in the ranking, scoring highest in vaccine doses administered, performing well in vaccinated travel routes, and maintaining a low case count, along with limited overall mortality.

Pakistan dropped to last place due to low levels of inoculation, tight restrictions on the unvaccinated, and weak health-care infrastructure.

No. 1 in cases

Metro Manila remained the region with the biggest number of cases at 176, followed by Western Visayas at 119, and Central Luzon at 82.

According to DOH data, the national caseload was now 3,663,920.

Duque said the government was prepared for the worst-case scenario now that several areas, including Metro Manila, had shifted to the lowest alert level.

“Before we decided to de-escalate, we made an analysis of the capacity of the health-care system…, regionally and locally,” Duque said.

He said what was observed during the worst of the surges—when the Delta variant was prevalent—was “high health-care utilization and ICU (intensive care unit) bed utilization rate.”

“Severe and critical cases were extraordinarily high, but we managed it. That was the litmus test,” he said.

Duque said “there can still be surges, but we are ready to manage.”

One strategy to be applied is the continuous use of granular lockdowns—“a component of our alert leveling system,” he said, adding:

“We will continue to adopt this measure if and when the measure calls for it. When there is a surge in an area, that’s the time a lockdown can be imposed.”

Booster shots

At Wednesday’s Laging Handa briefing, Cabotaje said more than 63.1 million Filipinos had completed their primary doses of COVID-19 vaccines and only 10.1 million of 36.7 million due for a booster shot had gotten the jab.

“Some are still thinking if they need the booster. Others, they don’t see the urgency of [it]. So we will go to workplaces and have our health-care workers get their boosters. We will focus on giving boosters to our economic front-liners in our workplaces, ecozones and national government agencies,” she said.

The first Bayanihan, Bakunahan was held on Nov. 29-Dec. 1 last year, with some areas extending it until Dec. 3.

The second began last Dec. 15. Other areas started it at a later date due to the impact of Typhoon Odette.

The third was held last Feb. 10-11, and was extended until Feb. 18.

—WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO

RELATED STORIES

COVID-19 may be endemic when entire PH under Alert Level 1 — DOH

DOH: COVID-19 pandemic still here despite Alert Level 1 in NCR, 38 other areas

DILG: Fully vaxxed COVID close contacts can skip quarantine under Alert Level 1