More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
Previously the government has blamed rising COVID cases on the public for not following health protocols. Time and again this has been prove to be a lie.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148663 |
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) logged a significant decrease in the number of quarantine violators in the country.
In a pre-recorded Cabinet meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday night, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año reported that the number of people apprehended for non-wearing face masks has decreased to 34,766, from over 50,000 during the previous week.
He said apprehended violators of the prohibition on mass gatherings also declined to 4,638, from last week's 12,724.
“(This is an indication that many of our people are following community health protocols, especially minimum public health standards),” Año told Duterte.
This good to know because the nation is gradually going under a harsher lockdown as the delta variant spreads. The NCR will be lockdown under ECQ for two weeks as a preemptive response to the new variant.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1467211/doh-ecq-gives-time-to-prepare-for-a-surge |
The Department of Health (DOH) does not expect the strict lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Metro Manila where the number of active cases daily could rise to 18,000 and up to 30,000 by September, but it will give time for authorities to prepare to deal with a possible surge.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Saturday said the figures were estimates made by experts from the Autumn Group and a team that employed the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler For Early Detection of Diseases, or FASSSTER system.
“What we’re saying is these lockdowns will help us prepare the system, but it is not going to control the spread. We still need to prepare the system, do what we have to do to prevent the further spread of this Delta variant,” she said during Saturday’s Laging Handa briefing.
“Please take note that these are initial projections and DOH, with our experts, have provided comments and recommendations to further improve on this,” she later told reporters.
Vergeire did not specify the “preparations” needed to deal with the expected rise in cases in the National Capital Region (NCR).
But the DOH is not only to blame for the disastrous reimposition of ECQ. LGUs appealed for this status!
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1148833 |
"The IATF made the decision to lock down in order to give time to increase vaccination and delay the spread of Delta. They did this with eyes wide open on the drastic economic implications. As for the timing, the cases and healthcare capacity still remain manageable and so the experts felt there was still time to prepare the public," he added.
He noted that the metrics for Metro Manila are still consistent for a general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions and that the decision to escalate to ECQ was made based on the appeals of local government units (LGUs).
“Appeals by LGUs are always entertained, and so the mayors, having seen some clusters on the ground wanted to escalate,” Salvaña said.
It is interesting to note that LGUs appeals to the IATF to put the NCR under ECQ. It is the LGUs that are causing great economic harm and scaring people over a virus that has a 93.7% revery rate.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/797455/economy-to-bleed-p105b-for-each-week-ncr-is-in-ecq-neda/story/ |
The Philippine economy will lose hundreds of billions of pesos while hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake for each week that Metro Manila - the country’s economic center - is under the strictest quarantine classification, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Friday.
“Each week of ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) in NCR (National Capital Region) will cost the economy P105 billion,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said, citing latest estimates from the NEDA.
“Also increase[s] poor people by up to 177,000 and 444,000 more without jobs,” Chua said.
Nonetheless, Chua said the economic impact of the strict lockdown “can be partly reversed if we use the three weeks to accelerate vaccination of everyone in the high risk areas.”
“This way, the ECQ will be an investment to pave the way for a recovery once we control Delta spread,” the country’s chief economist said.
With another round of the strictest lockdown to be imposed in Metro Manila, the government on Friday scrambled to find the money to compensate those who would temporarily lose their jobs or means of livelihood with the expected closure of some businesses.
The country’s chief economist warned of hundreds of billions of pesos in losses resulting from the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila from Aug. 6 to Aug. 20, on top of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who would slide to temporary poverty.
With the threat of community transmission of the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, the government is again struggling to contain COVID-19 with another cycle of lockdown.
This would be the third ECQ in the National Capital Region (NCR) since the pandemic was declared in early 2020. The first and longest was from March 16 to May 15, 2020, which crippled the economy. The second was from March 29 to April 11 this year during a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said in a text message to the Inquirer that officials were awaiting the Office of the President’s directive on the doleouts.
Asked whether there were funds for cash aid, Avisado replied: “We’re looking for where we could get some.”
President Duterte approved a P1,000 cash aid per person and a maximum of P4,000 per family in areas under ECQ, his spokesperson Harry Roque said on Thursday.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1467603/nograles-unsure-if-metro-manila-ecq-good-for-only-2-weeks |
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Monday admitted he is unsure if the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila will only last for two weeks.
Nograles, co-chairman of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said the duration of the ECQ will still depend on the number of COVID-19 cases as well as the progress of the vaccination drive.
“We also don’t know how long this ECQ will last. Right now, it’s just two weeks so far,” Nograles said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.
Pressed if the ECQ will stay for over two weeks, Nograles said: “I-momonitor natin yung numbers, i-momonitor natin yung vaccination rollout, we’ll take it one day at a time but also be mindful about August 20.”
(We will monitor the numbers, the vaccination rollout, we’ll take it one day at a time but also be mindful about August 20.)
“That’s at the back of our heads, we’re looking at projections again and the projections will only be as accurate as what we see day to day. It’s like a day to day basis, you can’t make accurate projections until we see the numbers day to day,” he added.
God only knows how long this whole charade will continue but why shouldn't it go on for as long as it can? The pandemic may have destroyed the economy but it has also brought in money to the government coffers.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1149143 |
The Quezon City government averages a daily collection of PHP60,000 from fines paid by Covid-19 health and safety protocol violators, the most prevalent of whom are those not wearing masks.
Despite repeated reminders and the fines that go with not following ordinances, there are still violators.
“Napakarami nating nai-pasang ordinansa dito to be able to contain the virus. Meron talagang multa na (We have already passed so many ordinances to be able to contain the virus. There is a fine of) PHP300 for the first offense, PHP500 for a second offense, and PHP1,000 for a third offense,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency on Monday.
Other violations are establishments that operate even if they are not yet allowed to, like bars, and drinking in public places.
A leader of the House of Representatives on Thursday proposed the construction of more modern jails to prevent prison overcrowding and the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Deputy Speaker and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II stressed the importance of building better facilities to lessen the spread of diseases in jails.
He also cited the Bureau of Corrections records showing that the congestion rate in its 125 prisons was 310 percent in January 2020.
According to a Human Rights Watch Report in 2020, 467 jails nationwide were at 534 percent of capacity in March of the same year based on Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) records.
“In these trying times, we are hoping that Congress will also shed light on the needs of our fellow Filipinos who have been deprived of liberty. PDLs (persons deprived of liberty) also deserve humane and safe facilities especially now that we are in a pandemic,” Gonzales said.
He said the government should address the inadequate detention conditions that could have devastating impacts on PDLs and prison staff, especially amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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