More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
The government has borrowed millions to pay for their COVID-19 response but funds have either been unspent or run out. What better way to raise more funds than to promote online gambling?
Despite previously being against online gambling in the country, President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said he was forced to allow the activity to boost the country’s Covid-19 response funds.
In a pre-recorded meeting with his political party officials, Duterte said allowing gambling operations was the most “sensible” thing to do, considering the government is running short of funds.
“Itong sugal, bakit ko pinayagan? Wala tayong pera eh. Ngayon kasi kailangan natin ng pera (Why did I allow gambling? We don’t have money…Now that we need money), the most sensible thing is really just to encourage those activities. Though it may sound not really repulsive but maybe repugnant to some, eh magdusa na muna kayo kasi kailangan ko talaga ang pera para sa bayan(you have to deal with it because we need money for the country),” he said.
He said the prevailing pandemic has forced the government to tap reserved funds from gambling operations.
He said it was the only way to prevent Covid-19 from infecting more people in the country.
“Pagdating ng pandemic, naubos ang pera natin. May reserba natin nagamit natin lahat (When it comes to the pandemic, we’re running out of money. We used up all our reserved funds) to contain the viral virus from rampaging all throughout the country,” he added.
It's not an unprecedented move as the DOH gets much of its money from and the Universal Healthcare law is to be funded by the PCSO which runs the lottery and other games of chance. But to say he HAD to do it opens the doors to a slippery slope. If it generates money then why not allow it no matter how repugnant the activity?
If you live in Bulacan and have a Tik-Tok account the government wants you to propagandist the nation.
Governor Daniel R. Fernando on Wednesday urged "TikTok" users, particularly the Bulakenyo youth, to help promote the implementation of the minimum public health protocols, particularly the wearing of face masks and face shields as a measure against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
He encouraged the students of BPC-Pandi to enjoin netizens in following the measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 through short-form videos circulated in the internet using the social media platform.
Through this, he said the youth or the TikTok users will be able to help the government in its implementation of the guidelines set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
"(We are facing a global health crisis so I believe that you, the youth, will have a great participation in preventing the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country, so do not waste your time on TikTok that does not make sense, make it meaningful)," Fernando said in an official social media post.
There are actually a lot of videos like that on every social media platform. What's really needed is people to make anti-face shield videos in the hopes that perhaps the people will be better educated on the issue and that DOH will finally come to reason and abandon that unnecessary requirement.
Do you run a tricycle franchise? Are you hesitant to get vaccinated? Do you live in Dumaguete? If so you might be out of a job soon.
City officials are eyeing the possibility of requiring the vaccination of motorcab-for-hire (MCH ) drivers against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) as a requisite in the issuance of a franchise to operate units.
This was one of the salient points discussed Tuesday during a meeting between Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo, the Committee on Transportation and Traffic, and other key city officials to formulate guidelines of an ordinance granting MCH franchises to operators from outside of Dumaguete, a media release on Wednesday said.
Vice Mayor Karissa Tolentino said there are inquiries on how to implement the ordinance.
One of the many reasons this would be a bad policy is that the Philippines is facing a shortage of vaccines. How can one get vaccinated if there are no vaccines? Also the vaccines don't actually immunize anyone. In order to fix the shortage problem Pinoy scientists must work overtime to formulate their own vaccine.
“Our scientists must work double the time…Mag-isip talaga kayo.If you have to pour your, ano, matutunaw yung utak ninyo (You really have to think. If you have to pour your, your brain will melt). You must come up with something to help the Filipino,” he said in a pre-recorded meeting with Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) executives and other government officials at Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang, Manila on Monday night.
He said he believes the Filipino scientists have the capability to be Covid-19 vaccine self-reliant, noting that the government has allotted enough funds for the purpose.
“We cannot be dependent, ill-afford to just sabihin doon sa ibang tao na ‘Bigyan mo kami, bigyan mo dito (and tell other nations ‘Give us supply’).’ That cannot go on. We must develop,” he added.
Seeing as it takes almost two decades to make a viable vaccine it would probably be better for the Philippines to either reverse engineer the current unapproved yet emergency-authorised vaccines or just manufacture them here.
DND Secretary and Chairman of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 says there is no timeline yet to lifting restrictions. However Dr. Ted Herbosa, an adviser to the NTFA-COVID 19 says once 50 million people have been vaccinated face masks and face shields can come off.
If Filipinos want to end the inconvenience of wearing face shields and masks, about 50 million of them must first be fully inoculated against the coronavirus, meaning about half of the Philippine population should have received two doses of the vaccine against COVID-19.
Dr. Ted Herbosa, adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF), said Filipinos still have a long way to go before they could get rid of those face coverings because only 3 million had been fully vaccinated as of Thursday.
“The target to advise the removal of the face mask and face shield is 50 percent of the target population, which is about 50 million, between 40 to 50 million,” Herbosa said at Thursday’s Laging Handa briefing.
Meanwhile, everyone has to continue complying with the prescribed health protocols, such as frequent handwashing and avoiding crowded places, Herbosa said.
It was unclear whether the 50-million mark was set by the NTF or the country’s pandemic managers as an official target.
They will surely move this goalpost. The problem is of course getting vaccines into the country and into the provinces. But once vaccines are administered there is the problem of proving that one has been vaccinated if they want to travel.
Here's one challenge facing local government units seeking to allow domestic travel for fully vaccinated residents: weak internet signal can sometimes hamper verification of QR codes or digital vaccination certificates.
"Kasi kung minsan yang mga QR code, lalo na sa mga boundary ng checkpoint sa land travel ay hindi naman lahat ng lugar sa kalsada ay may signal. So ang hirap nung QR Code na mangangailangan ng internet,” Quirino Gov. Dakila Cua, president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, said in an interview on TeleRadyo.
(Sometimes the use of QR code is difficult especially in checkpoint boundaries for land travel as not all areas have signal. So QR codes that need internet is a challenge.)
According to Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, the Philippine government is working on a common digital ID that would serve as proof of an individual's vaccination against COVID-19.
Why does it have to be digital? IT seems that it the problem here.
How will you know if your neighbor has taken the vaccine? One barangay has the solution.
Workers in Barangay Lasang, Davao City are visiting homes of vaccinated residents since Thursday to put stickers on their gates and houses.
This is part of the barangay’s initiative called household tagging and mapping to encourage other residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Barangay Lasang chairman Allan Simo-ag said the barangay prepared 1,000 stickers. Indicated in each sticker is the name of the household and a checkbox if he or she is already vaccinated with first or second dose.
As of the latest count, there are 274 residents that have already received anti-COVID-19 vaccines in Barangay Lasang.
How would these stickers encourage anyone to get vaccinated the authorities do not say. Probably they think peer pressure will do them in but there is also the problem of availability and the tiered system. Some folks may not be able to get vaccinated.
Don't think COVID-19 is anywhere near being over. The DOH says cases are high among those 15-19 and below 2. This is odd because all relevant data says those under 18 are not at high risk for COVID-19 infection. They also say there is a third wave happening.
Central Visayas is now on the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic, Unang Balita reported on Monday, citing Dr. Eugenia Mercedes Caña, chief of the Department of Health Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (DOH RESU-7).
"Yes. We are in a third wave now. We have been monitoring the cases for the last 4 weeks in Central Visayas, not just Cebu City and our epidemic curve shows an upward trend," Caña said in a message.
Caña said the main reason for the upward trend is the more transmissible variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
"The virus keeps on evolving as it is its nature to mutate resulting to different variants which increases the virus' transmissibility," she said.
Also seen as likely reason for the trend is the gatherings held by some residents like weddings, fiesta and birthday celebrations.
"These events drive the transmission because you bring people together without observing the public health measures," Caña said.
Other reasons cited by Caña were inappropriate use of public health and social measures and inequitable and uneven distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Despite this, DOH Region VII said the region is better off now than it was during the second wave of the pandemic in February and March.
It's really hard to judge what they mean by these "waves" as life goes on. Where are all the dead? There aren't many because the virus has an over 90% survival rate.
The government is upset that social influencers were caught partying and ignoring health protocols.
Several social media “influencers” are now in hot water after they were caught in a video partying and drinking alcoholic beverages without social distancing despite threats of COVID-19 inside a bar in Quezon City over the weekend.
Rannie Ludovica, Quezon City’s Task Force Disiplina head, said they will consult with their legal department to ask about how to hold accountable those who were caught violating health protocols inside Ciso Bar in San Francisco Del Monte.
The local government has yet to identify those caught in the video flouting health protocols, but Ludovica said some of them were “sad to say, influencers.”
He said the establishment violated various COVID-19-related measures, such as by allowing its guests to sit close to each other and without plastic barriers and serving alcoholic beverages without food.
This is actually a good thing. These influencers are showing there is nothing to be scared of.
Remember when they found a new COVID variant in the Philippines and labelled it the Philippine variant and the DOH got mad about that? Well, now the WHO says don't worry about it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has downgraded the classification of P.3, a coronavirus variant first detected in the Philippines, from a variant of interest (VOI) to an “alert for further monitoring.”
The WHO website indicates that P.3 was categorized as a VOI on March 24 this year but was downgraded on July 6.
“The reason for this is its reported detection has decreased over time,” National Institutes of Health executive director Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco-de la Paz explained in a Department of Health forum.
Perhaps the Philippine variant will disappear altogether.
