More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
What's the best way to keep yourself free of COVID-19? Treat everyone as potentially infected!
Now that Metro Manila and other areas with a high number of COVID-19 cases are easing back to a general community quarantine (GCQ), a doctor has this advice: Act as if people you meet outside of your home are positive for the coronavirus and just make sure your risk of exposure is kept to a minimum.
“Maybe that’s what we need to do now because the numbers [of infection] are really as such that all our face-to-face encounters are possibly going to be with positive people,’’ said Dr. Anna Lim-Ong, chief of Infectious and Tropical Disease of the Pediatrics Department at the University of the Philippines.
With this advice it is apparent that COVID-19 has won. At least paranoia has won. And there is god reason to be paranoid. The government is watching you!
According to JP Soriano’s report on “24 Oras” on Thursday, over 100 CCTV cameras are used by barangay officials to monitor residents’ adherence to social distancing measures as well as the mandatory wearing of face masks.
Local authorities also installed a public announcement system to communicate with residents from the control room of the CCTVs.
The government is watching you from afar and if they see you slip up they can shout at you from the hidden safety of their control room. Is here anything more straight out of 1984 than hearing a disembodied voice shouting at you to put o your face mask and keep your distance?
The government has barred healthcare workers from leaving the country for better jobs during the pandemic, Now they are churning out propaganda to make them content with that decision.
Malacañang on Thursday appealed to nurses’ sense of nationalism to convince them to stay while the country is facing a state of public health emergency amid the prevailing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this statement after Filipino Nurses United sought for the lifting of the deployment ban on healthcare workers as many of them remain unemployed.
Roque said the government is already providing healthcare workers additional benefits such as risk allowance, PHP15,000 for those who get infected with Covid-19, life insurance, free accommodation and transportation, and free and frequent testing.
He emphasized that once the Bayanihan 2 legislation is passed, healthcare workers in the private sector would also get salaries and benefits as competitive as those in the public sector.
“Sa tingin ko po,sa panahon ng pandemiya, mananaig naman po ang nasyonalismo sa puso at damdamin ng ating mga nurses (I think at a time of pandemic, nationalism will prevail in the hearts and feelings of our nurses),” Roque said.
He also reminded healthcare workers to consider their family members they will be leaving behind if they were persistent in working abroad.
“Kahit mangibang bansa ang ating mga health workers, maiiwan silang mga mahal sa buhay dito at sana maisip din ng mga health professionals na wala namang mag-a-attend sa mga pamilya dito kapag kailangan ng mga health workers (Even if our health workers go abroad, they’ll leave their loved ones here. I hope they also consider that nobody would attend to their families here),” he said.
DOH spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire echoed Roque, saying the country needs as many medical front-liners as it could get.
“Nakikiusap po kami sa aming mga healthcare workers na sana yung nationalism natin ay manaig sa panahon ngayon na meron tayong pandemya (We appeal to our healthcare workers hoping that their sense of nationalism will prevail at a time of pandemic),” she said.
Perhaps the government should use an appeal to nationalism to stop the OFW program altogether to prevent the brain drain. Many people depend on their OFW relatives for financial support. Despite the appeal only 25 nurses signed up for the program.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III yesterday reiterated the call for nurses affected by the deployment ban to help in attending to COVID-19 patients on the local front, saying only 25 of them have signed up.
In a press briefing, Duque noted that while some 1,000 nurses were stopped from leaving the country to work abroad, only 25 applied for the DOH’s emergency hiring program for health human resources (HHR).
“I am appealing to our nurses. I appeal to the sense of nationalism, to the sense of patriotism of every healthcare worker, we are still in war. We are in World War C and we need to work together to win,” Duque said.
ABS-CBN reported that Duque did not say "World War C" but "
World War Z" referring to the Brad Pitt zombie movie. Will more nurses heed the call?
It's not just humans who have been affected by the pandemic.
For Josephine and her daughter Jenica Victoria, the sad plight of animals in these trying times include the uncertainty on where to find food and the displacement caused by restrictions and lockdowns amid the pandemic.
Each day, they prepare animal food and venture out to drop off meals for more or less 30 cats and dogs at various places in Poblacion Pulilan to Plaridel Highway in Bulacan.
They used to feed stray cats and dogs near the roads, gas stations, and in some closed establishments.
Despite the risks of the dreaded disease, they patiently come out and hike for hours daily to make sure that stray animals are provided with food.
In an interview, Jenica told PNA that during months of doing helping stray cats and dogs, she said they cannot help but get attached to the animals.
They committed to feed the cats and dogs until the community quarantine is lifted.
"Nakita naman namin ang sitwasyon po nila nun panahon ng ECQ na struggle na nga sila makahanap ng pagkain lalo pang mas naging mahirap lalo wala talaga silang source dahil sarado lahat (We saw their situation during the enhanced community quarantine when they struggled to find food. It became even more difficult when establishments were closed and they lack any source of food)," she said.
Jenica and her mother did not complain about the bad weather just to help the animals in the middle of the crisis.
At first, they were called out by authorities for not staying at home amid the restrictions.
It pushed them to secure an agricultural certification, a permit allowing them to do stray feeding.
Good thing these stray animals are being taken care of rather than being left to die. Who doesn't want more stray dogs and cats roaming the streets?
Duque says the pandemic is a "blessing in disguise."
The coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 180,000 people in the Philippines, rendered millions jobless and with no signs of slowing down, can be considered a "blessing in disguise" for highlighting the need to speed up the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) law, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Friday.
Duque admitted that the pandemic has exposed "weaknesses" in the country's health care system, which the government is addressing as COVID-19 cases continued to increase.
"This can also be some kind of parang blessing in disguise. Serendipitous kasi parang na-accelerate itong UHC because of the COVID-19," he told an online forum with medical front liners.
"It's a catalyst, although COVID-19 did expose the fissures, the cracks, the weakness of our Philippine health system."
Actually the weaknesses of the Philippine health system, and especially PhilHealth which has been tasked to implement UHC, has been known for some time now. UHC was signed into law last year and yet the DOH has been seeking ever since to delay its implementation for various reasons.
Church services are allowed to be held in Manila but only 10 people at a time.
The government decided to continue limiting attendance to church activities in Metro Manila to 10 people during the general community quarantine (GCQ), Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Friday.
Guevarra also said the IATF heeded the request of Metro Manila mayors who wanted a stricter GCQ to include keeping church attendance at 10 people maximum.
“We just have to continue living our lives with the COVID-19 virus as an unwanted part of it. We just have to deal with it and continue to protect ourselves,” he said.
I am not sure if this has led to an increase in the amount of services being held each day.
The number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise and blame continues to be poured on the public or ignoring safety protocols and on the government for not being prepared. The Philippine Red Cross blames the mess on the DOH.
The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has attributed the spread of COVID-19 in communities and households to the Department of Health (DOH)’s belated release of results to patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The PRC volunteered last week to help the government release results to positive patients as it cited its records that showed at least one-third of over 15,700 confirmed cases since July 30 have not yet been informed of their status as confirmed patients, which might have caused the spread of the virus in communities.
In the latest development, however, the organization said it would start releasing positive results to patients who had themselves tested for COVID-19 in its facilities after getting the nod from the DOH.
“We welcome the DOH authorization, given the urgency of the situation, where more positive COVID cases are recorded in our country. They may have been dangerously increasing community transmission of the disease. We have devised a mechanism for releasing positive results to the individuals concerned without compromising the necessary protocols,” Gordon said in a statement yesterday.
The PRC says the DOH has not been realizing results of COVID-19 tests in a timely manner which has caused the virus to spread further because people are unaware they are infected.
Some Filipinos who have lost jobs during the pandemic have taken to selling their kidney's via Facebook to make ends meet.
Some displaced Filipino workers have turned to selling their own kidneys online just to get, by amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
In a “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho” episode, “Gardo,” not his real name, shared that his license as a security guard expired and he was just about to look for another job when the lockdown was implemented in the Philippines.
With no source of income for five months now, “Gardo” has been deep in debt and considered selling off his own kidney to survive.
“Macoy,” not his real name, who worked at a horse racing field, also lost his job.
“Macoy” then decided to sell his kidneys online. He found a Facebook group where members could sell their kidneys.
Once they agree on a transaction, the two parties would discuss privately on Messenger and share their real names, details of the sale, and sometimes photos of the patients.
According to “Macoy,” a person could sell his kidney for P350,000 up to P450,000.
(I’d use it to start a small busines. I know it’s illegal, but I’m going to take that risk. I’m not afraid to sell my kidney even if there’s a pandemic, because my family really needs the money),” Macoy said.
“Lisa,” Macoy’s buyer, revealed that her father had Stage 5 chronic kidney disease. He’d been going through 10 months of dialysis and needed a kidney transplant, which costs around Php 1.5 million-2 million.
Out of desperation, Lisa posted her plea for help in a Facebook group. She shared that almost immediately, people messaged her that they were willing to sell their kidney.
This story is very troubling. Selling your kidney is very dangerous. Why is Facebook allowing these groups to exist?
The COVID-19 pandemic is not going away soon even if a vaccine does show up. The WHO estimates it will last two years
As the Philippines reached the grim milestone of more than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths on Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) reiterated that the public should learn to live with the new coronavirus, especially as the World Health Organization (WHO) had estimated the pandemic to last at least two years.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire pointed out that observance of the minimum health standards was necessary given that experts around the world had yet to see signs of the infection slowing down.
“What is important when it comes to this is behavior change. Hopefully, as the months pass, people would change their behavior and practice the new normal, wherein one always wears a mask, washes his hands, observes physical distancing and stays at home if there is nothing important to do outside,” Vergeire said.
Currently, the Philippines’ case fatality rate is at 1.55 percent. Nearly all recorded cases are also mild or asymptomatic.
“Hopefully, we would be able to maintain that our health system is not overwhelmed and our case fatality rate is low. We can only do that by doing the minimum health standards. Even if it has to take two years for us to do that as long as we are all safe,” she said.
With a fatality rate of 1.55% and most cases being mild or asymptotic it seems like we will survive this pandemic just fine.
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