Phase 2 of Covid-19 action plan initiated
The government has begun rolling out the second phase of its National Action Plan (NAP) aimed at better managing the country’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis, a Cabinet official said on Saturday, as it reels from a continued surge in infections and a historic recession.
This comes as a representative of the medical community said she and her fellow health care frontliners were satisfied with the government’s response a week after they called for a return to modified enhanced community quarantine to rethink and recalibrate their Covid-19 action plans.
In a statement, Carlito Galvez Jr., presidential adviser on the peace process and chief implementer of National Task Force Covid-19, announced that “the Duterte administration is now implementing the second phase of the NAP [that] is focused on ensuring the health of Filipinos while breathing life into the nation’s economy,” which it was “gradually” opening up.
“It aims to sustain the gains achieved under the initial phase of the NAP; continue the government’s effort to scale up the capacity of our country’s health system to address the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic; lower the fatality rate both for Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 cases; and prepare the Filipino people as the country transitions to the new normal,” he added.
As of Saturday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 126,885, of which 57,559 are active. Of the total, 67,117 have recovered and 2,209 died.
On Thursday, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the economy contracted by a record 16.5 percent in the second quarter from a revised 0.7 percent in the first, plunging it into a technical recession.
The second phase used the “hammer and dance theory,” Galvez said, wherein the government “shall continue to contain the spread of the virus through its zoning containment strategy or targeted lockdowns while slowly rebuilding the economy.”
According to him, the government would also continue to strictly implement health and safety standards; further increase testing capacity and contact-tracing capability, especially in high-risk communities; and ultimately curb the spread and mitigate the impact of the disease by effective isolation, quarantine and treatment of cases.
The government needs “the support of everyone, particularly the private sector, so that it would be able to achieve the main objectives of NAP’s phase two: to ensure the health and welfare of the people while reviving the nation’s economy,” the official said.
“This is the reason…NAP phase two was designed to implement ‘rolling’ crisis management plans. The plan is the product of a ‘listening government,’ which takes into careful consideration recommendations …from all sectors of society,” he added.
The government would establish more intensive care units (ICUs) and isolation beds, testing laboratories, referral hospitals, swabbing centers and quarantine facilities across the country, Galvez said.
“We shall also ensure that our health frontliners in the government and private sector are protected and are able to receive all the benefits and support they need, as we establish the conditions where people can safely go to work and businesses can resume their operations,” he added.
In an interview on DZBB radio on Saturday, Dr. Maria Encarnita Blanco-Limpin, vice president of the Philippine College of Physicians, reported that collaboration between her group, the Health Professionals’ Alliance Against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (HPAAC), and the Department of Health (DoH), had become closer after their August 1 appeal for a timeout.
“Kami ay natutuwa dahil po alam [na namin] kung ano ang direksyon ang patutunguhan natin (We are glad because we now know which direction we are heading),” Blanco-Limpin said. “Ang nagiging problema lang po natin ay ‘yung implementation (What we had a problem is the implementation).”
According to her, the HPAAC is now assisting the DoH in implementing the strengthened response of local government units, the business sector and the community to the crisis.
Meanwhile, the Health department announced that it has secured P 300 million for its emergency hiring program on top of the P 142 million that was already allotted.
And Saint Luke’s Medical Center announced that its dedicated Covid-19 wards and ICU beds remain at full capacity.
WITH A REPORT FROM RED MENDOZA
Source: TheManila Times
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