More news about the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. Since this pandemic is slated to last for months if not years updates about how the government is handling the pandemic and how the people are reacting will continue to be a weekly feature. There is a lot happening and it is impossible to cover it all here.
As of now when I write this there are 33,069 cases cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines. Of that number 8,910 have recovered and 1,212 people have died. That leaves 22,907 COVID-19 patients. But there are far less beds than that number.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1296721/doh-only-36-of-covid-19-hospital-beds-used-nationwide |
Only 36 percent of hospital beds designated for coronavirus disease 2019 patients are being used nationwide.
According to the daily bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH), only 5,014 beds out of 13,927 beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients as of June 22.
Of the 1,382 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, only 487 or 35.2% are occupied; 1,255 (39.6%) ward beds are occupied out of 3,166 available and only 3,272 isolation beds (34.9%) are used from the 9,379 capacity.
So where are the other 17,933 COVID-19 patients convalescing? Are these numbers real? Rising cases and underutilized hospital facilities does not make any sense. The University of the Philippines has predicted 40,000 cases by the end of June and the government is desperate to prove them false prophets.
The country will certainly break the 40,000 barrier and soon. Will hand washing really arrest that trend?
Is this potential or actual testing?
Last week we read about OFWs in Saudi Arabia who lost their jobs digging through trash to find food to eat. This week we learn some OFWs are selling their blood to get by!
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Malacañang on Tuesday dared the public to help the government prevent from happening the prediction of researchers from the University of the Philippines (UP) that the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections in the country could rise by 40,000 by the end of June.
In a virtual presser aired on state-run PTV-4, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque maintained that the further spread of Covid-19 could be prevented by heeding the government’s call on all Filipinos to stay home, observe physical distancing, and practice regular hand washing and use of disinfectants.
“The challenge, mga kababayan (my countrymen), let us disprove the prediction of UP na magiging 40,000 (that it could reach 40,000),” Roque said. “Huwag po sana nating payagan na umabot ng 40,000 pagtapos ng buwan ng Hunyo. Challenge po iyan (Let’s do our part to ensure that it would not reach 40,000 by the end of June. It’s a challenge). I hope everyone will accept this challenge.”While the government continues to blame the rise in COVID-19 cases on people for disobeying the quarantine rules data from Google shows otherwise.
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| https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/06/25/2023522/govt-said-filipinos-are-pasaway-and-violate-quarantine-data-show-otherwise |
Take presidential spokesperson Harry Roque for example. On the face of tough Luzon lockdowns in April, Roque said: “Many Filipinos are disobedient and because of that we have the highest number of COVID-19 cases in ASEAN. That's shameful.”
“Stop being disobedient and stay at home,” he said at the time.
Data show Roque, as well as other government officials, were wrong to blame the public. Mobility data from tech giant Google LLC showed that, in fact, people were doing their part and staying at home. At the height of the Luzon lockdown on April 10, Google mobility data recorded a 90% drop on people visiting retail outlets, including malls, from the number recorded pre-pandemic levels.
The measurement is based on Google metrics that gauge movement trends across different places using data from phone users who have their location history on. It was unclear how many people with phones were covered by the data, but the Philippines is among the world's largest phone users, with around 26 million smart phone owners as of 2016, according to Statista, a data provider.Remember Google is always spying on your through your phone. Will the public get an apology from the Duterte, Roque, and the rest?
The country will certainly break the 40,000 barrier and soon. Will hand washing really arrest that trend?
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1106745 |
The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Southern Leyte chapter has been making improvised handwashing facilities out of used tires and empty drums as part of its initiatives to fight the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
In an interview on Tuesday, PRC chapter administrator Jonas Maco, said they have already made 103 of the facilities and already distributed to different local government units, schools, churches, and other establishments in the province.
Maco said the initiative dubbed the "Clean Hands Save Lives" project started in mid-March and more offices and establishments are expected to benefit from the program.
“This is a continuous project and we are making more to help the community, as long as we have donors. This is a unique project and could be for long-term use,” he added.
Apart from this, the humanitarian organization has also been providing hot meals to front-liners in the province.An innovative use of used tires. More than washing hands mass testing will help flatten the curve.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/25/20/philippines-daily-coronavirus-testing-capacity-exceeds-50000 |
The Philippines can run over 50,000 tests for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) per day, the country's testing czar said Thursday as the government sought to ramp up testing to include non-medical frontliners.
As of June 19, the country has reached a daily coronavirus testing capacity of 51,302, up by 2,465 percent from the Philippines' daily testing capacity of 2,000 in March, said Vince Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the country's pandemic response.
"As of June 19 ay nalampasan na po natin ang ating testing capacity goal na 50,000," Dizon said during a Palace press briefing.
(As of June 19, we have exceeded our testing capacity goal of 50,000.)
Last week we read about OFWs in Saudi Arabia who lost their jobs digging through trash to find food to eat. This week we learn some OFWs are selling their blood to get by!
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/pinoyabroad/news/744201/philippines-to-investigate-reports-of-ofws-selling-blood-in-saudi-arabia/story/ |
The government will investigate reports that some overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia have resorted to selling their blood to be able to buy food after losing their jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Malacañang said Thursday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the labor attaché in Saudi Arabia would conduct the investigation.
"We are investigating that in our labor attaché as we speak," Roque said in a televised briefing.
"We are fortunate to have the assurances that we give to our OFWs who are unable to return home due to lockdown but have lost their jobs as in Saudi Arabia."
A report on “24 Oras” on Wednesday said the OFWs sold their blood in exchange for 500 Riyal (around P6,600). The OFWs previously worked in a restaurant.
Selling your blood, likely plasma, is bottom of the barrel.
The Department of Tourism is itching to get tourists back in the Philippines.
Cebu has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot and has been placed under a hard lockdown. The military has been called in to assist but apparently that does not mean the response has been militarized.
The Department of Tourism is itching to get tourists back in the Philippines.
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| https://www.rappler.com/business/264975-department-tourism-plans-tourists-from-coronavirus-free-countries-visit-philippines |
This proposed policy called "travel bubbles," Puyat said, could allow tourists to fly directly to tourist hotspots in the country with international airports.
"Since zero COVID naman sila, we are looking at from their country to Boracay or Bohol na puwede na tayo magka-travel bubble or travel corridor so at least hindi lang tayo limited sa international tourism," Puyat said at a Laging Handa briefing on Friday, June 26.
(Since they have zero COVID-19 cases, we are looking at having "travel bubbles" or "travel corridors" from their country so our international tourism is not limited.)
Puyat said that the department is looking at tourists from countries such as Australia and New Zealand. As of Thursday, June 25, Australia has 37 new coronavirus cases, while New Zealand has only 3.
"If this goes well, we will finally be able to accept [tourists from] countries where [there is] practically zero or low cases of COVID," Puyat said.
In a statement on Friday, Senator Sonny Angara said that apart from Australia and New Zealand, other countries such as Thailand, Singapore, China, South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan are also exploring the idea of "travel bubbles" to revive the tourism industry.
Angara said that "travel bubbles" could be successful if the Philippine government is able to stop the spread of the virus.
"Trust is key in ensuring success of 'travel bubbles.' The only way our potential partners will agree to 'travel bubble' agreements with us is if we are able to show that we are successfully containing the spread of COVID-19 in the country," the senator said.
"We continue to record a lot of fresh cases daily and until we can bring these numbers down, confidence of tourists entering the country will be an issue," Angara added.Tourists are not going to want to visit a nation where the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise.
Cebu has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot and has been placed under a hard lockdown. The military has been called in to assist but apparently that does not mean the response has been militarized.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/06/28/2024174/cebu-city-told-soldiers-and-saf-your-side-keep-you-inside |
“The deployment of police commandos and soldiers here in Cebu City is not a militarization as some people would describe it, and therefore, is not a wrong approach,” said Eleazar.If deploying the military is not militarization then what is?
Doctors have also been deployed to Cebu to the detriment of their current patients.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/06/28/2024189/doctors-remote-barrios-protest-sudden-reassignment-cebu-city |
Doctors under the government's Doctors to the Barrios (DTTBs) program were not informed about what they called an "abrupt exploitative order" to assign them to private hospitals in Cebu City.
The transfer order included no guidelines and protocols to protect the doctors in this temporary reassignment and did not consult affected stakeholders, the organization said Sunday.
This came after rural health physicians were informed on Friday that they would be pulled out of from their assigned municipalities in western and eastern Visayas to report for duty in unspecified private hospitals in Cebu City where a spike in coronavirus cases has been reported.
The doctors said the order "was only supported by a request letter addressed to the Undersecretary of Health for Field Implementation and Coordination Team for Visayas and Mindanao and an unsigned advanced copy of an Office Order, respectively," while no proof of an agreement between the private institutions and the health department was made available for discussion among all parties involved.
"The absence of proper communication, justifying the temporary reassignment of rural health physicians serving in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAs) to serve in private hospitals in Cebu City is a clear violation of the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers," the paper reads.
"The DTTBs and the local chief executives should have been represented in decision-making involving this temporary reassignment. Failing to do so makes such directives exploitative for doctors and inconsiderate for the communities that they serve. There is complete disregard to (sic.) the concerns of the doctors and the local chief executives," it adds.
They also pointed out that their members had a unique position as rural doctors, and their removal from their assigned communities would only be damaging to those living there.
"Removing a DTTB from a municipality, albeit temporarily, will deprive healthcare to thousands of Filipinos in already marginalized communities. If we further clip the already short human resources for health in GIDAs, we perpetuate the existing inequities in access to healthcare that the DTTB program wishes to address," the doctors said.Why are government doctors being assigned to private hospitals? Nurses are facing the problem of burnout and are calling for mass hiring.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/06/28/2024183/nurses-union-calls-mass-hiring-cebu-city-grapples-covid-19 |
The Cebu Medical Society, in a June 16 statement, described the situation in the 'Queen City of the South' thus: "Hopsitals are overwhelmed and undermanned, essential medical equipment are scarce, doctors and nurses are getting sick and are burnt out."
FNU said Sunday: "Time is of the essence! Immediate mass hiring of nurses with minimum entry salary of P32,000, just benefits including hazard pay, adequate personal protective equipment, and safe nurse to patient workload are critical solutions to augment the severe understaffing of nurses who will help save lives against COVID-19."
It said it made a similar call in March "but sadly, the Department of Health (DOH) responded with a call for volunteer health warriors with an allowance of P500 a day."Everyone knows nurses in the Philippines work long hours for little pay. Hopefully they can get what they need.
We all have to wear masks now when we go out. Some masks apparently have a lot of history behind them.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1298472/masks-reveal-history-of-cordillera-fabrics |
A small tailoring shop at the back of City Hall has been selling cloth masks for P30 each since the start of the Luzon quarantine in March.
Medical masks, which can prevent transmission of the coronavirus, cost up to P28 apiece but can only be used for hours, so cheaper cloth masks have become the norm.
But the growing need for face masks has reopened an interest in Cordillera fabric that now benefits weavers from Ifugao, Benguet, Mountain Province and Abra.
“Umaray na ang bulsa (The lockdown hurt our pockets) so we needed to make face masks so our weavers could earn a little,” said Catanes, who also serves as manager for design research and development of her mother’s company, Narda’s Handwoven Arts & Crafts.
Though unproductive from March to May, the shop maintained the salaries of 60 weavers, tailors and store employees. Instead of remaining idle, the staff produced 2,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) for Baguio hospital workers using fabrics donated by other people.
As the lockdown eased and businesses were allowed to resume in May, Narda’s had been earning from specialty PPE and ikat (weaving style where fabric is dyed) masks, Catanes said.
“Our weavers completed 600 ikat face masks and were producing more when sales spiked online because of interest over social media,” she said.
“Orders have streamed not just in Baguio but from other areas like Metro Manila and we are now developing an efficient delivery system during the quarantine,” Catanes added.
Is this article saying that these masks cannot prevent the transmission of the virus?? That they just look good and are cheap?? It sure seems that way.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the Philippines number one.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the Philippines number one.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1298503/who-ph-has-fastest-rise-in-virus-cases-in-western-pacific |
In nearly two weeks, the Philippines had the fastest rise in coronavirus cases in the Western Pacific region, more than three times that of Singapore which is battling a second wave of infection.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that the country has logged 8,143 new cases since June 16, the highest among 22 countries in the region.
Singapore was a far second with 2,351 new cases during the same period, while China, where the SARS-COV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 originated, had 302.
Since the Philippines began easing restrictions on May 15, there has been a total of 22,935 new cases, including 738 new infections on Saturday. This represents almost 66 percent of the nationwide total of 34,803.
Among the WHO’s Western Pacific members, the spread of the virus is most notable in the Philippines and Singapore.
As to be expected the government was not overjoyed at being given this distinction. The reactions have been various. Some Senators said the government mishandled the situation, DILG Secretary Año said the Philippines was still doing fine compared to other countries in batting the virus, and Roque disputed the WHO's report saying, "Why compare us to Singapore?"
One Cebuano took such a shine to the new quarantine pass that he decided to use it as a t-shirt design.
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| https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/322638/calling-it-a-piece-of-art-cebuano-prints-new-quarantine-pass-on-a-shirt |
But while some are making fun of the new passes, RR “Pormz” Prominal, a 30-year-old t-shirt printing shop owner from barangay Ramos, had something else in mind.
He decided to make the new quarantine pass a design for a shirt. Prominal decided to print the Qpass on a white shirt last Saturday, June 27, 2020.
“I saw the sample Qpass on social media and thought it was quite iconic,” he said. “A piece of art actually,” he added.
So this is what pushed him to print it on using his direct-to-garment printing machine.
” [I wanted] to preserve it [for] the future when all this is done,” said Prominal.It is certainly very creative.
It is now July 1st and the Palace is cheering that the prediction from experts at the UP that there would be 40,000 COVID-19 cases but the end of June did not come to pass. But those experts disagree.
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| https://www.manilastandard.net/index.php/news/top-stories/327450/palace-40-000-cases-off-mark-experts-disagree.html |
Raising his fist in celebration after learning the month-end tally fell below the UP projection, presidential spokesman Harry Roque exclaimed: “We beat the UP prediction. We beat it so congratulations, Philippines! Let’s do it again in July.”
Roque’s congratulations came as the country posted the second highest number of new cases of COVID-19 in a single day on Tuesday.
The Department of Health reported 1,080 more infections, 858 “fresh” and 22 that were reported “late,” bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 37,514.
The UP professors who projected 40,000 cases by the end of June said the final tally was well within their margin of error, telling a TV interview that the estimate was not ver far off.
“For me it’s just semantics. We are not at 30,000 or at 50,000,” UP math professor Guido David said on GMA’s Unang Hirit proram. “More or less it’s about the same.”
Senators, meanwhile, disputed the Palace claim that the country was winning against COVID-19.
Senator Panfilo Lacson said the claim was nothing more than the government patting itself on the back.
Senator Lacosn is right about this particular issue. Despite the rising number of cases and the reimposition of a hard lockdown in Cebu the government declares that they are winning the war against the virus.
“In terms of positivity rate, in terms of case-doubling rate, in case of mortality rate, we are winning. As, in fact, we defied what was predicted by the UP study,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a virtual presser.
Early this month, the University of the Philippines (UP) released a study predicting that the country’s Covid-19 cases would reach 40,000 by the end of June.
As of Monday (June 29), the country has 36,438 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 9,956 of whom have recovered and 1,255 have died, according to the Department of Health.
Roque also cited an initial UP study that the country’s coronavirus cases would have reached 3.6 million by June if no interventions were done.
“Ang sabi po ng UP, kung wala po tayong lockdown na ginawa eh ngayon po meron na tayo sanang 3.6 million cases ng Covid, 3.6 million!Saan po nagkulang ang Presidente? Ano pa po ang dapat ginawa nya? Naiwasan po ang 3.6 million cases ng Covid (According to UP, if we have not imposed lockdown, we have now 3.6 million cases of Covid. Where did the President fall short? What more does he have to do? We have prevented 3.6 million Covid-19 cases),” Roque said.
He said the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is doing its best to manage the Covid-19 situation in the country.
“Hindi po tayo perpekto, siguro po talaga (We’re not perfect, perhaps) we could have done better. Pero narito na po tayo (But we’re here now) and one thing I can assure you, the President did the very best that he can and we are in control of the situation,” he said."Did the very best that he can" is the key phrase here. It is likely they are doing the best they can which means they have a lot more to learn. Will the Philippines beat the new UP prediction of 60,000 cases by the end of July?
