More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
The Philippines has detected its first case of the monkeypox virus, the Department of Health announced Friday.
The infected person is a 31-year-old Filipino who arrived from overseas on July 19. Beverly Ho, the agency’s deputy spokesperson, said the case had prior travel to countries with documented monkeypox cases.
The case who tested positive on July 28. The patient’s clinical information and gender were not disclosed.
According to Ho, the country’s first monkeypox case is undergoing strict isolation and monitoring at home.
Authorities identified 10 close contacts, including three from the case’s household. The close contacts are not manifesting any symptoms and are being monitored.
“The DOH assures everyone our public health surveillance systems are able to detect and confirm monkeypox cases,” Ho said.
The health official added the government is securing vaccines to protect people from getting monkeypox. But she stressed that not everyone needs to be immunized against the virus.
Isn't it great that nothing meaningful about the patient was disclosed? That information is especially relevant because it is being spread predominantly among homosexual men. Despite monkeypox not being much of a threat there are calls to form a national task force to deal with the virus.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180457 |
A party-list lawmaker is calling for the urgent creation of a national task force to monitor the status and combat monkeypox to proactively prevent community transmission and infection.
In filing House Resolution No. 134 on Aug. 1, AGRI Rep. Wilbert Lee said a national task force, composed of relevant government agencies in partnership with the private sector, must be established to enhance preparation and develop strategies to proactively combat monkeypox.
A copy of the resolution was sent to the media on Tuesday.
“The said national task force against the monkeypox virus shall also update the public on the status of this disease, implement robust decisions to fight the continued threats of the monkeypox virus and develop education and strategic communication materials that will equip and prepare the general population to mitigate the risk of being infected by the virus and qualm the potential panic and misinformation that can affect the public,” Lee said.
Lee said the government should apply the lessons learned from the "painful experience" of dealing with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in addressing monkeypox, stressing the need for a "whole-of-nation approach in this battle".
“(We need a fast and aggressive approach especially now that we are still in a pandemic. It is necessary to be educated regarding this matter so that Filipinos would be aware to prevent getting infected)," he said.
He said the country could not afford to suffer another economic standstill, especially for vulnerable sectors such as farmers and fisherfolk.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said monkeypox is not as alarming as Covid-19.
“I want to be very clear to everyone: This is not covid…Hindi nakakatakot kagaya ng (It is not alarming like) Covid. Yung monkeypoxparang (Monkeypox is like) smallpox. Marami namang gamot (There are medicines to cure it),” Marcos said in an interview with reporters in a Pasig City event on Monday.
Why not form a task force against dengue instead? That virus is deadly and does pose a real threat. Dengue cases are on the rise.
The government continues to warn us about surges in a bid to get people to get vaccinated but the DOH also claims the Philippines' risk for COVID is low.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/31/22/philippines-still-low-risk-for-covid-19-doh |
The Philippines is still at low risk for COVID-19 despite the increase in new cases, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Saturday.
In a statement to media, the DOH said the country has an average daily attack rate of 2.52 cases per 100,000 population, and a bed and intensive care unit (ICU) utilization rate of less than 29 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
“Even with the observed increase in cases, it is more important that our bed and ICU utilization rates stay low -- meaning our hospitals stay open and not overwhelmed,” the DOH said.
But preventive health education and health reform advocate Dr. Tony Leachon said the government should not be complacent with the low hospital utilization rate.
He said there is still a need to prevent the spread of infection albeit mild to increase the country’s economic productivity.
“Kasi itong parang ginagawa natin right now, ‘Okay lang maraming cases tayo basta’t wala lang magla-land sa hospital.’ That’s the approach to prevent it. You have to decrease the number of cases as well. And how do you decrease the number of cases? You have to protect the population to become resilient. ‘Pag kokonti ang cases mo, then you have a productive workforce,” Leachon said.
The DOH acknowledged there is still a need to improve vaccination and booster coverage to help prevent severe and critical cases, as well as follow proper sanitation and health protocols.
The country remains at low risk despite the rise in cases. See how they just can't help themselves? They must always warn of a rise in cases even if that rise is hardly significant and the majority of cases are not deadly. In fact, 12 towns in Quezon are now entirely COVID free.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1637491/12-towns-in-quezon-remain-covid-19-free |
With the continued spread of coronavirus infections in Quezon province, only 12 towns out of 41 municipalities remained COVID-19 free as of Thursday, July 28.
The Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) listed 50 new COVID-19 patients, the highest single-day tally in recent months. It said the current active virus carriers in the province jumped to 174.
The IPHO did not provide information on the COVID-19 variants of the active cases in the province.
The health authorities also reported that 19 infected patients have recovered while a virus carrier in Tayabas City died. No further information was available.
On May 5, Gumaca town was the only locality in the province with an active COVID-19 case. The locality had only one recorded infected resident then.
The 12 municipalities with no active COVID-19 infected residents are Buenavista, Pitogo, Macalelon, San Andres, San Narciso, San Francisco, General Nakar, Real and the island towns of Perez, Burdeos, Panukulan and Patnanungan.
Those previously infected in the localities have either recovered or died, the IPHO report showed.
"Those previously infected in the localities have either recovered or died, the IPHO report showed." Just read that ridiculous sentence again and again. Based on the statistics of this virus I will venture to say that the majority recovered and perhaps one or two with existing comorbidities died as a result of complications and not because of COVID.
The fact that alert levels are decreasing also shows how low risk the Philippines is at this point.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180217 |
More areas have been de-escalated to Alert Level 1 while the National Capital Region stays in the same classification.
The Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday the alert level status will be effective August 1 to 15.
The DOH said these areas maintained their case classification and total bed utilization rates at “low risk” and have reached or neared the vaccination thresholds for the target population and target A2 (senior citizens) priority group.
The rest of the Philippines is under Alert Level 2.
"Our continued compliance with the minimum public health standards keeps us safe -- wearing the best-fitting mask, isolating when sick, doubling up protection through vaccines and boosters, and ensuring good airflow," said Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, DOH Officer-in-Charge, in a statement.
Ah, so now we, that is the public, are complying with the minimum public health standards. But if there is a rise in cases you can bet these jokers will lament that no one is following those same standards.
Millions of doses of the vaccine are set to expire and the DOH is blaming the private sector.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/07/30/2198943/doh-tosses-back-private-sector-expired-vaccine-issue |
The Department of Health (DOH) has questioned why the private sector did not make use of its COVID vaccines to boost all eligible economic frontliners, thereby avoiding vaccine wastage.
The DOH, in a statement yesterday, said providing first booster shots to eligible economic frontliners would have prevented the expiration of millions of COVID-19 doses.
“At the time these private sector-procured vaccines came in, there were 8.1 million working Filipinos – economic frontliners – already due for their first booster. This demand grew to as high as 14 million economic frontliners as of July 26, 2022,” the agency said.
“Even if all the economic frontliners due for first boosters were given their company shots in December, there would still be around 1.6 million workers waiting for their first boosters after all near-expiring private doses have been consumed,” the DOH pointed out.
Citing data from the Zuellig Pharma Cold Chain Warehouse, the DOH noted that beginning Dec. 19, 2021, the private sector received 12.4 million AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccine doses procured through government mechanisms. These doses, it pointed out, have expiry dates of July and August 2022.
Despite the private sector’s frustrations on the expiration of vaccines it purchased, Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion stressed the need to move forward and focus on the goal of keeping the economy open.
In an online town hall meeting yesterday, Concepcion said part of the 4.2 million doses of vaccines purchased by the private sector expired on July 27, while the remaining will expire on July 31.
“Despite some frustrations on our part, I think we should look at the bright spot. We have been able to reach this point, whereby the economy has totally opened,” Concepcion said, citing that almost every business is fully open.
“Tourism is back. You can see our restaurants, our malls, all of that are back as to what it was pre-pandemic. And this is, in a way, what we wanted to see. Now, the goal is to maintain an open economy,” he added.
The Go Negosyo founder had been leading private sector appeals to the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) since April to allow second booster vaccination.
“The lack of urgency on the part of the HTAC and the DOH at which the vaccination advisories, policies and implementation progressed, caused the bulk disposal of these hard-earned COVID-19 vaccines,” Concepcion said earlier.
“We first sounded the alarm about low booster uptake in March, and about the expiring vaccines in early April. This could have easily been prevented had the HTAC simply listened and learned from the guidance of the CDC back in March when it recommended additional boosters for those as young as 50 years old,” he previously said, referring to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The DOH blames the business sector and the business sector blames the DOH for not taking their warning about low booster rates seriously. Let them devour each other. Risa Hontiveros wants an investigation as to why wastage was allowed to happen.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/08/03/2200014/hontiveros-seeks-senate-probe-covid-19-vaccine-wastage |
Sen. Risa Hontiveros is seeking a Senate investigation into reports that COVID-19 vaccines supposedly worth billions of pesos have gone to waste in the hopes that the government will manage and distribute its portfolio of jabs better.
“It is imperative for the government authorities to strive for less COVID-19 vaccine wastage, to accurately and transparently report vaccine wastage, identify drivers of wastage, and implement effective interventions to reduce it,” Hontiveros said in Senate Resolution No. 92 filed Monday but only released to media on Wednesday.
Hontiveros told reporters at a press briefing that while it is understandable for a portion of the vaccines to go to waste due to various reasons, she questioned why billions of pesos worth of the shots are not being used and are simply expiring.
(Do we just say goodbye to billions of pesos? It looks like we are going to be throwing money and vaccines in the face of yet another rapid rise in COVID-19 cases.)
She added that had they known that vaccines would just be wasted, they could have allocated funding for aid for other sectors adversely affected by the pandemic like farmers, fisherfolk, drivers and other frontline workers instead.
(A lot of sectors are clamoring endlessly for aid from the government, and then the managers of our vaccines would just be throwing money away.)
According to the government people simply do not want to get booster shots. Unless that problem can be solved then vaccines will continue to go to waste.
Baguio is using game theory to improve the city's response to COVID. Barangays will be ranked and scored on how they are dealing with the virus.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180449 |
The city government will start naming villages that are exerting effort and those that are not performing well in terms of convincing residents to be jabbed against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19)"We will be having a dashboard posting the top 20 barangays with the top booster doses. And unfortunately, we also have to post the 20 with the lowest booster doses," Dr. Celia Flor Brillantes, the assistant city health officer, said on Tuesday.She said there will be a daily countdown of booster doses that will be made public to let the people know the vaccination rate in their communities."Our toll order from the city health officer is to do 500 booster vaccines a day," she said.Brilllantes said the city has been trying to convince the people to have a booster shot, adding that the local government aims for a 100-percent or booster vaccine accomplishment or higher, the same as fully vaccinated, which has reached over 105 percent.She said they used to do 200 vaccinations a day."We can do that if we do it six days and in the next 10 weeks, that will give us 30,000 booster doses before October 8 increasing the booster doses from 51 to 61 percent," she added."We have not laid low, we were not waiting for people to come to the vax areas, but we have been utilizing the mobile vaccination teams from district jab sites to mobile groups to the big vaccination sites," Brillantes said.
How has the number of fully vaccinated people reached over 105%? That does not make any sense. If people don't want the booster shot then they are not going to take it even if vaccination teams go door to door. Why don't they go to door making sure people are engaged in heart-healthy habits since heart attacks remain the biggest killer by far?
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180295 |
The City Health Office (CHO) on Monday said heart attacks and animal bites were the two most recorded health cases in 2021 here.Dr. Rachel Dilla, head of the CHO, said heart attack was the top cause of mortality with an average case of 202.23 last year, and 127.58 deaths in a five-year average from 2016 to 2020.“This means that there are 28 deaths weekly because of heart attack,” Dilla said in a media briefing here.Deaths related to Covid-19 ranked second on the data in 2021, with 172.53.Hypertension or high blood strokes would rank third in 2021 with 132.3 average cases.
Are they really trying to give a five year average death rate for COVID-19? It has only been around for two years!
One Pasig barangay has begun a free monthly art class to help residents cope with the stress of the pandemic.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180443 |
Having in mind the therapeutic and calming effects of art creation, especially nowadays when many people have to fight pandemic-related stress, a barangay in Pasig launched on July 30 the “Sining Galing” monthly art lesson/workshop for residents.
Barangay San Antonio (BSA), Pasig chairman Raymond U. Lising has been hands-on in pushing for the barangay’s newest initiative to bring the community closer and provide mental wellness initiatives amid the trying times.
The program, which showcases Filipino artists’ talents aimed at creating awareness of the different forms of art, is spearheaded by the barangay committee on tourism led by Councilor Venus La Putt through a collaboration with other stakeholders, civic society organizations, and community members of the barangay.
“We were inspired to add a new attraction to the People’s Street (Carless Weekend) at Emerald Avenue. We wanted something that has aspects of tourism, culture, and arts. Something that would involve all ages, resident or not of BSA,” he added.
Moreover, the barangay chairman believes that the Sining Galing program not only promotes art and supports Filipino artists but also gives every participant a breather amid the chaos brought about by the pandemic and the ongoing crisis.
“Art, in general, is good. It is a worthwhile hobby. It can contribute to mental wellness and personal development, which we all need in this time of chaos brought about by the pandemic,” Lising said.
Let's be clear. The pandemic did not bring about chaos. The government's heavy handed response did and continues to do so.
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