More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
It seems the Philippines will finally have a new DOH Secretary soon.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/01/31/23/vergeire-willing-to-be-doh-secretary |
The officer-in-charge of the Philippine health department declared she is now willing and ready to become health secretary.Maria Rosario Vergeire said she can step up to the role at a time when COVID-19 remains a threat to global health.
She has been the acting chief for more than half a year which makes her the obvious choice.
Marcos has not and likely will not extend the state of calamity but he has still ordered health workers to receive their extra pay.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1724009/bongbong-marcos-orders-health-workers-allowance-continued-despite-lifting-of-state-of-calamity |
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Wednesday ordered that the allowance of health workers be continued despite the lifting of the state of calamity.
Marcos said that the distribution of health workers’ allowance should not be affected by the lifting of the state of calamity in view of the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the country.
(The distribution should be continuous. We studied my concern that the compensation of health workers’ allowance will be stopped once the state of calamity. But we found that this will not be affected.)
Marcos also mentioned the COVID infection situation in the country, saying he discussed with health officials the procurement of vaccines.
The COVAX facility, co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), shipped to the Philippines almost 1.3 million doses of the vaccine, according to the President.
Such number of doses is sufficient for the country for now, Marcos said as he pointed to the declining number of infections in the Philippines based on recent records.
(The number of cases are decreasing and even the hospitalization rate. We are looking out for that.)
(It’s not like in 2021 that we should be urgent in procuring vaccines because the risk is becoming lesser so we should adjust to the scientific assessment of the COVID-19 situation.)
The Department of Health (DOH) has reported that new COVID-19 cases continue to decline in the country.
Marcos also indicated that the nation would not be so urgent in procuring more vaccines. Without the state of emergency it would not be so easy to procure them now. There is still an ongoing investigation into how much was actually made for vaccines during the past two years during the emergency when no oversight was required.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1723698/hontiveros-to-doh-waive-ndas-reveal-cost-of-covid-19-vaccines |
Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday called on the Department of Health (DOH) to end the “unnecessary secrecy” surrounding the pricing of government-purchased COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday.
Hontiveros encouraged the DOH to waive its non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with vaccine producers and suppliers, simply calling them “useless and have outlived their purpose since the issue of ‘price competition’ is now over.”
“It is now simply a violation of the public’s right to know how our money was spent. NDAs should no longer stand in the way of accountability and transparency,” she said in a statement.
She said the waste of at least 44 million vaccines should be reason enough to reveal their true cost.
(The cost of the vaccines should not be treated as a state secret because public funds were used to purchase it. These NDAs paralyze the COA from fulfilling its mandate of judging whether the billions of money we spent during the height of the pandemic were worth it.)
She renewed her call to release all the information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine procurement of the government, firmly urging the private sector not to hide behind the NDA provisions of government contracts and undermine the constitution.
(There is no reason for this to be done behind closed doors. We deserve to know how every centavo was spent, especially during a recession. Whoever needs to be held accountable must be held accountable. Don’t hide behind the NDA.)
While the DOH has turned over initial documents to COA for its audit, Hontiveros pointed out that they only submitted loan agreements with the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and those with limited permissions from some vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
“What about the agreements with other vaccine manufacturers like Sinovac? The former administration bought bulks of vaccines from Sinovac for its national vaccination program. How can the COA conduct a complete audit if companies keep hiding behind the NDA clause of the contracts?” she pressed.
She warned about this setting an “alarming” precedent for companies evading transparency as it transacts with the government.
“If another pandemic comes, this may happen again and may possibly be abused,” Hontiveros added.
Hontiveros is right and likely the sheer cost and waste brought on by the pandemic will never be fully known.
Three years after the pandemic began one city is finally getting a COVID-19 waste disposal facility.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194090 |
This city has received a coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) waste storage and disposal facility from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), an official said Wednesday.Mayor Jose Paolo Evangelista said the facility, worth PHP6.5 million, was turned over Tuesday afternoon to the local government by DENR-Soccsksargen (Region 12) officials led by Engr. Kristeen Kreem Villanueva, DENR-12 chief of the Chemical Hazardous Waste Materials Section – Environmental Management Bureau.“It is a preliminary disinfection and storage facility for collected Covid-19 related wastes for this city,” Evangelists said in a statement.The facility is a 20-footer container van that can haul 4.5 metric tons of Covid-19 waste materials.It also has 63 yellow bins with rollers; 3,150 pieces of yellow trash bags to seal infectious wastes mounted with wood platforms and steel framing for support.Villanueva said the storage facility is designed to properly handle and control the disposal of infectious wastes and materials that could transmit illnesses.Evangelista assured to properly utilize the facility to achieve its objective for public safety, including all frontliners from hospitals and medical facilities here.
With the pandemic over this would seem to be a waste but any investment in proper medical waste disposal is a good thing.
The Roman Catholic Church has issued a litany of gratitude for recovery from the pandemic which is to be recited until February 22.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194254 |
Catholic priests have been asked to recite a prayer for more than 10 days as the country slowly recovers from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
In a statement Thursday, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued the “Litany of Gratitude after the Covid Pandemic,” to be prayed from Feb. 11 to Feb. 22 (Ash Wednesday).
The prayer will replace the Oratio Imperata Against Covid-19, an obligatory prayer issued by the CBCP during the height of the pandemic.
CBCP secretary general Msgr. Bernardo Pantin said the prayer was approved during the 125th Plenary Assembly on Jan. 30.
It will be prayed in all weekday and Sunday Masses.
The full litany can be read at this link. Of course there is a thanks be to God said but the fact of the matter is there never was a real pandemic with millions dying from a highly contagious virus. The whole thing was fake and the response by governments around the world was unscientific, unsound, and destroyed lives more than helping them.
More events suspended by the pandemic are coming back.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194341 |
The faithful are expected to attend the first physical “Walk for Life” in Manila after a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
Raymond Daniel Cruz, Jr., president of the event's organizer Council of the Laity of the Philippines (CLP), said the activity is set on Feb. 18 from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.
The walk will start at the Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City going to the University of Santo Tomas (UST) grandstand here, where a program and Mass will be held.
“Our spirit of upholding life has never wavered even during the pandemic,” he said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news website on Friday.
“We have even become more deeply aware of the sacredness of life and continuously pray and work immensely to preserve and keep it safe,” Cruz added.
At the same time, CLP or Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas is inviting the laypeople and church organizations to join the event and “celebrate life.”
“In our modern society, the varying issues in life are urgent and we need to constantly express to everyone our uncompromising stand on the importance and sacredness of life,” he said.
The event was first held in 2017 and was staged virtually in 2021 and 2022 due to pandemic restrictions.
How do you stage a walk virtually?
Baguio has shut down all its isolation facilities because they have been empty for weeks.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194332 |
The local government has decided to stopped the operation of all city-managed coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) isolation facilities as these have remained empty for the past few weeks now.
Aileen Refuerzo, chief city information officer, on Friday said the Baguio City Community Isolation Unit (BCCIU) at the Sto. Nino Hospital ended its operation starting Feb. 1.
She said the cessation of operations of the BCCIU was decided after the facility did not receive new admissions for Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks.
The BCCIU is an isolation facility that houses more than 300 beds and used to be the old hospital that was closed down by the owners in early 2000.
As early as the last quarter of 2022, the city government also started winding down operations at small facilities catering to Covid-19 patients. It also went on to close the triage facility at the Baguio Convention Center compound.
Refuerzo said the closure was based on the recommendation of the City’s Health Services Office (CHSO) which provides the manpower and manages the Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facilities (TTMFs).
With the closure of the city government-managed facilities, he said barangays have been ordered to assure that they have a ready facility for their residents who will be needing TTMF services or cannot isolate at home.
The city government has also started to distribute to the barangays and the different government agencies the beds and beddings used at its isolation units.
City health officer Rowena Galpo, in an earlier statement, said their office is willing to provide the technical assistance needed in setting up barangay isolation units.
If the city does not need isolation units why would the barangays?
The DOH has been urged to procure bivalent vaccines but finance secretary Diokno says there are too many unused vaccines to make such a purchase.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/02/04/2242453/with-70-million-unused-vaccines-no-rush-get-bivalents |
The head of the economic team of the Marcos administration maintained that there is no urgency in procuring bivalent COVID vaccines as the country still has available some 70 million doses.
During the forum hosted by the Makati Business Club yesterday, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno emphasized that the country has enough vaccines at the moment, noting that fewer and fewer Filipinos are actually taking the jabs.
The jabs available, however, are the first-generation vaccines. The bivalents are specifically designed against the Omicron and its subvariants.
“We confronted that issue and the fact right now is that there are 70 million unused vaccines, 70 million. We vaccinate on average just 10,000 daily. Only 10,000 are willing to be vaccinated,” Diokno said, in reaction to the query of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines on the ability to import bivalent COVID vaccines. However, this possibility limited following the inclination of President Marcos to no longer extend the state of public health emergency in the country due to COVID.“There’s no urgency [to procure] to my mind,” Diokno said, arguing that the COVAX Facility will provide some 1.2 million doses of bivalent vaccines that will come in next month.
At the current rate of daily vaccination, it would take over three months to consume the doses to be delivered by COVAX.
“As COVAX said, as soon as you finish up the 1.2 million [doses], we will give you more,” Diokno said. “Apparently, the rest of the world does not want to be vaccinated [anymore]. That’s the situation right now. There’s a resistance.”
He maintained that the government already incurred $2 billion in loans for the vaccines. Of that amount, some $800 million remains untapped.
If only 10,000 people are getting vaccinated per day it seems unlikely they will use all that excess tock before it expires.
What better way to help pandemic hit businesses than a Valentine's Day fair?
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194562 |
Over 30 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) would showcase their respective products at the annual “MayniLove” fair which formally opened to the public on Monday evening.
Speaking at the fair's opening, Mayor Honey Lacuna encouraged her constituents as well as the people from neighboring cities to visit and support the small businesses to be able to rise again from the effects of the pandemic.
“I invite all Manileños to support this project, we will be able to help our small entrepreneurs or those who are starting to recover from the effects of the pandemic,” she said.
Lacuna said the people can bring their families and friends to the fair in celebration of Valentine's Day at the Mehan Garden from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The fair which runs until Feb. 17 was organized by the city through the Bureau of Permits and the city's economic development and investment promotions office. Admission to the venue is free.
Of course this fair won't help any of the business destroyed by the devastating economic structures imposed by the Duterte administration.
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