Coronavirus Lockdown: Special Week of Vaccinations, Learning to Live with COVID-19, and More!

More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.

Last week Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama issued an EO declaring face mask wearing in public non-obligatory. Now the DILG says that EO is on hold.

https://www.philstar.com/nation/2022/09/01/2206650/cebu-citys-rule-optional-masking-on-hold-dilg

The Department of the Interior and Local Government said Thursday that Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has agreed to put an order relaxing the requrement on wearing face masks on hold.

"Mayor Mike agreed to temporarily put this executive order on hold by virtue of my commitment to bring the matter to the IATF for deliberation," DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos said in a statement.

Abalos also asked other local executives to defer the implementation of similar policies until the matter is discussed by the IATF.

This was after Rama signed an executive order making the wearing of face masks a voluntary act in most places in Cebu City, except in hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities despite the ongoing health crisis.

The Department of Health also opposed the policy shift, saying it is not yet time to ditch the use of face masks even as the number of COVID-19 cases continued to decline.

The agency’s officer-in-charge, Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, also stressed Thursday the need for a “one nation approach” as the country battles the pandemic.

“Wearing a mask is just a small sacrifice to protect ourselves. When we protect ourselves, we can also protect our family members,” Vergeire said in Filipino.

But the DILG chief said he will suggest to the IATF to make Cebu City the pilot implementer of the measure declaring the use of face masks non-obligatory.

Abalos said “the city has always been first in espousing non-masking policies outdoors for the ease and benefits of its people amid the pandemic.”

While the hold is only temporary until the IATF gives their opinion DILG Secretary Abalos says he will recommend Cebu City as a pilot implementer of making face masks non-obligatory.

The DOH is still focused on their vaccination program. 

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/09/02/2206794/doh-planning-conduct-special-week-vaccinations

The Department of Health (DOH) has bared its plan to conduct a special week of vaccination drive by the end of the month in line with the efforts to ramp up the country’s immunity against COVID-19.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that the PinasLakas vaccination program, at this time, is “way below” its target of giving anti-COVID booster shots for at least 23 million Filipinos by the 100th day of the Marcos administration on Oct. 8.

Although the details of the special week are still being ironed out, she said this would step up the initial gains of the government’s PinasLakas.

“This is just one of the strategies we will be adopting so we can expand vaccination efforts in the country’s different regions,” Vergeire said at a recent press briefing. “We might not be able to reach the original target but at least we now aim to achieve half of it so that we can raise the wall of immunity in the country.”

For the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI), the DOH might be able to increase the numbers of recipients in the vaccination drive if it conducts a “house-to-house” campaign.

“What we are suggesting is if there are not that many showing up in the government’s targeted vaccination sites, maybe health care workers can go directly to the people and have the latter vaccinated inside their homes,” said Dr. Jose de Grano, PHAPI president.

“I think we should start it already. The people have been waiting for them but maybe because others only suffer from mild symptoms (of COVID-19), they don’t worry much,” De Grano added in a text message. 

On Wednesday, the DOH recorded 1,558 new COVID-19 infections – the lowest daily tally since July 12 when 1,363 cases were recorded.

Imagine getting a knock on your door, or a shout because after all this is the Philippines, and it's a government employee who wants to inject you with an experimental drug! That's worse than when the Jehovah's Witnesses come proselytizing. 

Despite people dying after being vaccinated the DOH says there is no casual connection.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/02/22/doh-not-all-fatal-covid-19-vaccine-outcome-related-to-jab

Reports of fatal outcome following COVID-19 vaccination are not all causally related to the jab, the Department of Health said Friday.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire made this remark in response to a question about deaths supposedly associated to the inoculation.

According to a report from the Food and Drug Administration, there were 2,573 fatal events recorded after COVID-19 vaccination as of July 25. 

The drug regulator noted "reports of fatal outcome does not necessarily mean that the vaccine caused the events."

"So, ibig sabihin hindi po lahat ng namamatay dahil sa pagkakabakuna ay dahil dito sa COVID-19 vaccine," Vergeire said in a press briefing. "Not all of this are causally related dito sa pagbabakuna natin."

As of Aug. 6, the country has administered more than 159 million doses of COVID-19 shots, she said. Of the figure, some 0.07 percent reported adverse reaction while 0.006 percent were severe adverse reaction.

"Again, lahat po ng nire-report natin na fatal outcomes dito po sa ating website does not necessarily mean that the vaccines caused the deaths of these individuals," Vergeire stressed.

In FDA's "Reports of Suspected Adverse Reaction to COVID-19 Vaccines," the drug regulator said "underlying conditions or pre-existing medical conditions causing fatal events are usually coincidental on the use of the vaccine".

Of the fatal cases, 1,470 or 57.13 percent belonged to age group 60 years and above; 702 or 27.28 percent from 40-59; 332 or 12.90 percent from 18-39; 39 or 1.52 percent from 12-17; 12 or 0.47 percent from 5-11; and 18 or 0.70 percent were not identified to what age group they are classified.

"Most of these events occurred in persons with multiple existing comorbidities. These include cardiovascular diseases, ischemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and infections including pneumonia. There were cases of confirmed COVID-19 infections leading to severe cases with fatal outcomes," the report reads.

To say not all fatalities occurring after vaccination are related to the vaccine is to admit some of them are. It's also enlightening to read that many of these deaths occurred in people with comorbidities. That is a factor many news reports omit. 

The PGH says COVID hospital beds are filling up. 

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/metro/843788/pgh-covid-19-wards-becoming-full-former-ntf-adviser/story/

The COVID-19 ward of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is becoming full, a former adviser of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said Monday. 

In a public briefing, Dr. Ted Herbosa, a former NTF adviser and incumbent professor of emergency medicine and trauma surgery at UP-PGH, said that an average of five to six individuals test positive for COVID-19 in the hospital while their emergency patients reach 80 to 90 per day.

[Our COVID-19 wards are also becoming full because we reduced the number of beds there when the COVID-19 cases decreased. But it’s starting to become full. So initially, there were sometimes one or two beds left.]

Despite this, he said that most of the COVID-19 cases are not serious, especially those vaccinated.

[But our cases are not really that serious, especially those vaccinated. If they are vaccinated, they will have mild symptoms and they can go home immediately from the hospital.]

COVID-19 beds are filling because they reduced the number of beds! That is one neat trick. 

Despite the deceit of the PGH the DOH says the COVID-19 situation is actually improving. 

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/03/22/ph-covid-19-situation-improving-says-analyst

The Philippines is seeing an "improvement" in its COVID-19 situation with the continued decline of reported COVID-19 cases, an analyst said Friday.

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said the daily number of reported COVID-19 cases in the past week did not exceed the 4,000 level, and the latest positivity rate is already down to 12.4 percent, compared to at least 18 percent several weeks ago .

"There is really an improvement in the numbers," Guido said.

"What we are seeing now is that the trend is really going down... so we are reaching the level of 1,000 plus new cases again."

Based on the Department of Health's weekly COVID-19 update released on Friday, Mindanao was already showing signs of plateauing, the Visayas remained on a plateau, while the rest of the areas continuously showed a slow downtrend.

Severe and critical cases, meanwhile, remained on a plateau, with less than 1,000 cases.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, clarified that the numbers are not yet stable as she urged the public to remain cautious.

"Right now we see that the number of our cases is not that stable, although it is down but there is still transmission happening in every community," Vergeire said.

"It can also be seen that there are still people who get serious and die from our disease."

While COVID-19 cases are decreasing, Guido said the number of daily reported deaths remained high the past several days, which reached over 50.

"This is not really the time for us to have a false sense of security because trends change very quickly," he said. "From good to bad, that happens very quickly."

The situation is improving but we cant have a false sense of security because people are still dying. And just what are the stats on those who have died? How many were vaccinated and how many have comorbibdities?

Despite these happy scare tactics (it's going good but be cautious) Filipinos are learning to live with the virus.

https://mb.com.ph/2022/09/04/experts-observe-pinoys-learning-to-live-with-covid-19/

Filipinos are learning to live with Covid-19.

This is the observation of Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion and OCTA Research fellow Fr. Nicanor Austriaco as vaccination rates “hardly moved” in the past month.

Austriaco believes that it would be incorrect to dismiss low booster rates as mere complacency.

Based on data from the National Covid-19 Vaccination Dashboard, vaccination rates hardly moved in the past month, with only 18.1 million booster vaccinations administered despite the 71.5 million people who are eligible for it.

“The Filipino people appear to have moved beyond vaccines,” he said, adding that people are now weighing how much risk is acceptable to them.

“They see people around them with mild illness, and they appear to have concluded that the cost of getting a booster is greater than the risk of getting sick with mild Omicron Covid-19,” Austriaco said.

Concepcion, on the other hand, observed that the preferred use of antigen testing may also be contributing to the underreporting of cases.

“I believe more people are infected but most are not reporting the cases anymore since antigen testing is what is used more often,” he said.

He said that this may also be contributing to low booster uptake because those who are being infected do not bother to take boosters anymore.

“Omicron will act as a booster for those who get it,” Austriaco said, adding that he believes natural infection is significantly better than the Omicron booster that is being rolled out in the United States because there is significant data that shows that natural immunity is more robust than vaccine immunity.

Filipinos have moved beyond vaccines and testing. That is a better theory than the one form the DOH that everyone is being complacent and incautious. 

There is so much coronavirus news to report that I won't get it all in this one article. The lady who skipped quarantine to go party last year has been sentenced in the fastest trial ever in the Philippines. She pled guilty. A medical doctor wrote an editor to the letter opining that masks should never come off. There might have been a breach in contract tracing data which is what has led to the recent phone scams where the scammer knows the victim's name.

However the week ends with big news as the IATF has recommend lifting mandatory face masks outdoors.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/844038/iatf-recommends-optional-face-mask-use-outdoors-says-palace/story/

The Inter-Agency Task Force of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has recommended the voluntary wearing of face masks in open spaces by year-end amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Malacañang said Wednesday.

In a hybrid press briefing, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said the IATF’s recommendation is to make optional the wearing of face mask in open spaces or non-crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation, provided that the COVID-19 booster uptake in the country improves.

(IATF's recommendation is to liberalize our mask wearing mandate and make mask wearing outdoors voluntary across the country.)

Cruz-Angeles stressed that this is not yet a policy, but the pilot testing of the optional face mask use will be conducted towards the end of the year.

(The lifting of the mandatory mask mandate will be piloted towards the last quarter of 2022, provided there is an improvement in the COVID booster vaccination coverage.)

Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire confirmed such a suggestion by the IATF, saying that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has already “verbally approved” it.

"There is a verbal approval from the President when they talk to Secretary Benhur from DILG," she said, referring to the Secretary Benhur Abalos of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

It is not clear if this is really the recommendation of the IATF or if it was commanded by Marcos. Either way the same day this news was broadcast the totally opposite was recommended by an infectious disease expert working with the DOH.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1659551/expert-not-yet-time-to-ease-health-rules

A member of the government’s vaccine expert panel on Tuesday warned that the relaxation of minimum public health protocols, such as the mandatory wearing of face masks, was “very dangerous” as it could lead to fewer people taking their booster shots and the more vulnerable getting hospitalized due to severe COVID-19.

Speaking during the televised Laging Handa public briefing, Dr. Rontgene Solante, an infectious diseases expert, cited Cebu City’s policy of making the wearing of face masks outdoors optional.

“I’m not in favor of lifting or making wearing of face mask outdoors optional because of the low population with booster shots in the general public. And secondly, COVID-19 is still here, we still have community transmission, and this measure [in Cebu City] is very dangerous,” he said.

Dr. Rontgene Solante is a member of the DOH's technical advisory group and she says living the face mask mandate would be dangerous. The point is the IATF and the DOH are simply not in tandem. There are too many experts out there giving contradictory opinions.