More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
Remember last month when an OFW was detained in a hotel for a mandatory quarantine and missed her daughter's wake? The was terrible enough but now an OFW has died from cancer during her mandatory hotel quarantine after authorities refused to transfer her to a hospital.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/regions/800831/ofw-succumbs-to-cancer-at-quarantine-facility-despite-pleas-of-hospital-transfer/story/ |
An overseas Filipino worker succumbed to cancer at a hotel quarantine facility the same day she was set to go home after pleas for a hospital transfer were not granted due to supposed lack of available rooms.
According to Tina Panganiban-Perez’s report on “24 Oras,” Rachelle Sagonoy landed in Cebu on August 10 from Saudi Arabia. She tested negative for COVID-19 and was brought to a quarantine facility.
The family said they pleaded for Sagonoy to be quarantined at a hospital due to her cervical cancer.
(While they were still preparing for her quarantine, she was already having difficulty breathing. She couldn’t move alone anymore.)
(She wasn’t allowed to be transferred to a hospital.)
While undergoing quarantine, Sagonoy was still able to talk to her family through chat and video calls.
(She said she really wanted to be confined. She had no problem with the quarantine, no matter how long as long as it was in the hospital. Why did it have to be in a hotel?)
Her family received news of her death on August 20, the day her quarantine ended.
Her family is mulling to file charges against the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Bureau of Quarantine.
OWWA Administrator Hans Cacdac visited Sagonoy’s burial to extend his condolences and apologies.
(We have a nurse looking after her. She also had a roommate but for one reason or another, her condition worsened and she passed away.)
“It’s very unfortunate, indeed. Hindi namin ginusto na masawi din si Rachelle, so I offered my apologies and condolences to the family,” he added.
Cacdac also said that the request for a transfer was not approved as hospitals in Cebu were already full.
“Hindi sya nalagay sa ospital. We were advised that puno ang mga medical facilities within Cebu City at the time and it was not advisable at the time to take her there dahil nga itong situation sa Cebu ng COVID surge,” he said.
It is really not acceptable that this lady was not transferred to a hospital or a doctor sent for to look over her. Are we really to believe that Cebu hospitals are so full of COVID patients that they can't take in a cancer patient in critical condition? What everyone else who gets sick? Stroke victims, car accident victims, gunshot victims, etc. are they all supposed to just die because of COVID precautions?? That is an unbelievable and unacceptable situation.
If this lady had been in Manila perhaps she could have been transferred to PGH.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/multimedia/photo/08/26/21/state-of-the-art-isolation-facility-at-up-pgh |
A priest blesses the newly constructed state-of-the-art isolation facility at the Philippine General Hospital during its launch on Thursday. The 570-squate-meter isolation facility has 44 beds for severe COVID-19 victims and is equipped with negative pressure alarm system that prevents cross contamination.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1478648/cebu-town-requires-permits-for-family-gatherings |
A town in Cebu province has required its residents to secure a clearance from their respective villages if they want to hold social gatherings, such as birthdays, weddings, and baptisms.
San Remigio Mayor Mariano Martinez has issued Executive Order (EO) No. 21, which aims to monitor the movement of people in the municipality, and stop the spread of COVID-19.
“A barangay clearance/permit shall be required for birthdays, weddings, baptismal, and such other related family events and activities,” the EO read.
Authorized personnel from San Remigio Police Station and representatives of the Municipal Inter-Agency Task Force and Barangay Task Force on Monitoring Compliance were tasked to inspect all approved activities.
San Remigio, which has a population of 65,744 based on the 2020 census, is under general community quarantine with heightened restrictions until Aug. 31.
Based on past experience this EO won't stop the spread of COVID-19. In fact nothing the government has done has slowed or stopped the spread of the virus including widespread lockdowns. Finally the DILG is paying attention to that fact.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/26/21/philippines-may-do-away-with-broad-lockdowns-dilg-exec |
The Philippines might do away with regional or province-wide lockdowns in a looming "policy shift" to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, an official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Thursday.
A sub-technical working group led by the health department recommended resorting instead to granular lockdowns limited to subdivisions, streets, or several houses, said DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing.
(What will happen here is we asked local governments to prepare for a so-called policy shift on lockdowns. We are looking at no longer having sweeping lockdowns at the level of the region and province.)
Unlike the current set-up, a granular lockdown will bar even authorized persons from leaving their homes, which will lessen public mobility and the chances of COVID-19 spread, Densing said.
The national government will help local authorities provide food assistance in areas under granular lockdowns, he added.
"There will be a policy shift because we have seen that this method is more effective," said Densing.
Barring even authorized persons to leaven their home will certainly lead to the loss of more jobs. Unemployment claims are up as more and more people lose their jobs. The National Economic and Development Authority says the economy likely won't be back to normal until the end of 2022 or early 2023.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/800882/philippine-economy-s-return-to-pre-pandemic-levels-seen-at-end-of-2022-early-2023-neda/story/ |
The Philippine economy's return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels is expected late next year at the earliest, according to estimates by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
During the House Committee on Appropriations’ deliberations on the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA chief Karl Kendrick Chua said the recovery prospects for 2021 remain encouraging.
“[This] will allow us to recover to pre-pandemic levels some time at the end of 2022, if not early 2023,” Chua said.
“This will also help prevent long-term scarring and productivity losses,” he added.
The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 11.8% in the April to June 2021 period, its highest quarterly reading in 32 years owed largely to “low base effect” since the comparable period in 2020 was at -16.9%.
The second quarter of 2020 was a period when most of the economy was shut down due to the imposition of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to arrest the spread of COVID-19.
While the exit from the pandemic-induced recession is a welcome development, the Philippine economy is still far from reaching the growth levels in 2019, before the COVID-19 crisis.
They are framing this forecast on the GDP. But how does growth in the GDP benefit anyone but the most rich who control all the industries? How does such a forecast take into account the hundreds of thousands of expel who have lost jobs which will never return?
One important thing the pandemic has done is expose the corruptions of the DOH and PhilHealth.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/801021/4-hospitals-close-amid-philhealth-payment-delay-official/story/ |
Two more hospitals have temporarily ceased operations amid the delayed payments of PhilHealth, bringing the total number to four, the head of the group of private hospitals said on Friday.
Interviewed on Unang Balita, Dr. Jose Rene De Grano, president of Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPi), said one of these hospitals is in Samar while three are in Davao del Sur.
De Grano had earlier bared that two PHAPi member-hospitals have closed amid the issues with PhilHealth payment.
Duterte has ordered PhilHealth to pay their claims but that does not undo the damage that has been done.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/08/31/2123862/who-says-delta-variant-now-dominant-philippines |
A majority of recent samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center are of the hyper contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, making it the most dominant variant in the Philippines, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
The Delta variant was found in 68.98% of the 748 samples sequenced recently.
"The Delta variant is now the dominant variant in the Philippines [based on] existing data we are seeing," Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO representative to the Philippines, said in a briefing.
Abeyasinghe also confirmed the community spread of the Delta variant, which is the fastest and fittest form of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
"Are we in community transmission? Most certainly. We do know the Delta variant spreads very fast, [is] more transmissible, has shorter incubation period. So, yes, with this kind of transmission, with this kind of numbers we are in community transmission with Delta variant," he added.
What does this mean? What will it mean? It means that none of the lockdowns or stringent protocols have been effective in stopping the spread of this variant. It will mean that more lockdowns and more protocols are going to be coming soon.
The past few weeks have been revelatory as the COA has disclosed many financial irregularities in the way the DOH and DBM and other agencies have handled the pandemic. It has provoked Duterte to no end who has defended DOH Secretary Duque. This week Duterte admitted he ordered Duque to skip bidding on PPE's which contract went to a company linked to Chinese businessman and Duterte friend Michael Yang. The evidence is overwhelming that the pandemic has bought out the same old corruptions in the government. Duterte remains defiant about everything that has happened.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/09/01/2123957/duterte-name-country-prepared-covid-19-ill-resign |
President Duterte has vowed to step down if anyone can name a country that was prepared for COVID-19 as his administration faces intense criticism over its handling of the pandemic.
Duterte said COVID-19 infections are rising globally and the effects of the pandemic are being felt even in the United States and Europe.
“Who was prepared for this? America? Name a country that is prepared, I will resign.
Name a country prepared for the pandemic, the spread of the virus and I will resign as President,” the President said during a recorded public address aired yesterday.
“You know when the pandemic started, we had nothing. We had no face mask, personal protective equipment, testing kits, nothing. And the same people criticizing today are the same people telling us last year that we were too slow and we’re not prepared,” he added.
This is his justification for ordering Duque to break the law in procuring face masks and other PPE by not having a bidding war. In the process some company named Pharmally, with ties to Duterte friend and Chinese businessman Michael Yang were enriched. I think we can expect more of these shenanigans in the future as the pandemic continues.
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