More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
Face to face classes are set to resume nationwide. The PNP is ready for the challenge.
 |
| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1648175/23000-cops-to-be-deployed-nationwide-for-school-opening |
The Philippine National Police (PNP) will deploy around 23,000 personnel nationwide for the resumption of in-person or face-to-face classes in schools nationwide starting next week.
PNP spokesperson Police Colonel Jean Fajardo said it would send police personnel near schools and assistance desks.
(We’ll be deploying more or less 23,000 plus PNP personnel nationwide, particularly on the premises of schools and established police assistance desks.)
(Students and parents with security concerns can quickly seek the help of our police force.)
Fajardo said that as early as July, they have coordinated with school administrators and government agencies.
Aside from schools, Fajardo said crowd build-up is also expected in transport hubs and terminals as some schools implement a complete face-to-face set-up.
(To ensure that we maintain and observe minimum public health protocols, we will deploy personnel who will serve as PNP COVID-19 patrollers who will coordinate with the management of establishments and schools to ensure compliance with minimum public health standards and protocols.)
Armed cops are just who students need to be greeted by after being out of school for two years. And all to make sure everyone is wearing their masks properly. The DOH already recommended each school have a safety officer to make sure everyone follows health protocols.
 |
| https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/13/doh-says-schools-should-have-safety-officers/ |
Ahead of the resumption of in-person classes this month, the Department of Health (DOH) reminded schools of the importance of deploying safety officers to ensure compliance with health and safety protocols against Covid-19.
“(The most important thing which we will continue to remind) and we will be highlighting this to the Department of Education, safety officer should be there,” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing on Friday, Aug. 12.
Vergeire said that a safety officer “doesn’t have to be a doctor” but they should be trained in monitoring the proper implementation of minimum public health standards within the school premises.
The DOH official also admitted that maintaining physical distance in classrooms is “impossible” but other protocols should be followed such as wearing of face masks and ensuring proper ventilation.
‘“(With regards to physical distancing inside the rooms, the DepEd and DOH have discussed this for a long time, and it is really impossible to implement this, that is why) if we cannot implement physical distancing, the other measures should be in place,” she said.
Vergeire also urged eligible students as well as teachers and non-teaching personnel to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
“(All teachers and non-teaching personnel who will interact with the children should be vaccinated, and of course, to encourage parents to let their children get vaccinated as well as teachers who are still unvaccinated),” she said.
“We are putting vaccination sites in our schools through the help of our local governments para maipatupad natin ng maayos ito (so that we can implement this properly),” she added.
With safety officers ensuring health protocols are followed there is no need for cops to be on campus.
More monkeypox cases have been detected in the Philippines.
 |
| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/842106/philippines-detects-2-more-monkeypox-cases-total-now-3/story/ |
The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday confirmed two more cases of monkeypox in the Philippines, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to three.
At a press briefing, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the two new cases are aged 34 and 29 years and both had recent travel history to countries with confirmed monkeypox cases.
Vergeire declined to give the details about the patients, including their gender.
According to the DOH official, the 34-year-old patient’s positive PCR result was released on August 18, while the 29-year-old patient's result was released on August 19.
The 34-year-old patient is under home isolation while contact tracing is ongoing, according to Vergeire. On the other hand, the 29-year-old patient case is currently in a healthcare facility.
At least 17 close contacts are being verified as contact tracing is ongoing.
A fourth case has people worried since that person did not leave the country. The DOH says they are ready to fight monkeypox. The DOH is also reporting a rise in COVID-19 related deaths.
 |
| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1649767/ph-reports-higher-covid-19-deaths-per-average-mostly-unvaxxed |
In recent months, COVID-19 has killed more people every day in the country, most of whom were unvaccinated, said Maria Rosario Vergeire, the Department of Health’s officer-in-charge on Friday.
“There’s this increase in the number of deaths over these past months,” Vergeire said in a press briefing.
Vergeire said that the country is just averaging one death per day in June, but the daily average of deaths in July and mid-August has increased.
The average number of daily deaths in July was eight, which increased to nine in mid-August.
Unvaccinated people also accounted for the majority of deaths in July and August.
“Upon analyzing our data, noong tinignan natin (what we have observed) from July 1 to August 14… we found that 63 percent of these deaths were those who were not vaccinated,” Vergeire pointed out.
As of Thursday, the country has reported 61,221 deaths or 1.61 percent of the total caseload, which stands at 3,802,103, according to the DOH COVID-19 tracker.
There were also 36,115 active cases, while 3,747,372 survived the coronavirus.
Without knowing other relevant information such as the age and whether or not the decedent had comorbidites these numbers are worthless. Just from reading the headline we know that vaccinated people have also been dying from COVID-19. 37% of those deaths had been vaccinated. In Davao only 2 out of 6 deaths were unvaccinated.
 |
| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1181630 |
The city government reiterated its call Thursday for residents to take their two-dose vaccination series and booster shots following six coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) related deaths recorded from August 7-13.Of the six deaths, two were unvaccinated, three administered with the first dose, and one completed the two-dose series without any booster jab.Four of the recent Covid-19 casualties were senior citizens while one is from the 10 to 19 years old bracket and another belonged to the 20 to 29 population group.
How is that going to inspire confidence in the vaccine?
 |
| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1181630 |
Local government units in Eastern Visayas will provide incentives to encourage more residents to get Covid-19 vaccines as part of the nationwide PinasLakas campaign.
During the regional launch on Thursday, Biliran Governor Gerard Espina said after attaining 94 percent in the vaccination of first and second doses for senior citizens, they would shift to persuading the general population to get booster shots.
“Just like in the past, we are thinking of doing raffle draws or offer free rides to those who will get booster shots. We will do what we did in the past to make vaccination appealing to the public. We also have to increase public awareness on the importance of booster doses,” Espina told reporters.
The province registered only 15 percent coverage for booster doses. Of the 63,701 target population for booster shots, only 19,504 have been vaccinated.
For the administration of the primary series, Biliran has been recognized by the Department of Health as the top performer among six provinces and two independent cities in the Eastern Visayas region.
In Calbayog City, Samar where only 64 percent of residents received the primary shots, Mayor Raymund Uy said they would compel village officials to locate and convince the unvaccinated.
For the booster dose, of the 137,901 target population, only 6,991 received the first booster shot and 521 got the second booster shot.
“The target for PinasLakas campaign is 90 percent. That would be very hard for us to meet that. Our more realistic target is to attain 70 percent,” Uy said.
“We will not extend assistance to villages and their officials will not be allowed to travel outside the region to attend official events if their community will not achieve the minimum 70 percent coverage target,” he added.
Now they are back to giving away sacks of rice or even money to those who get vaccinated. But who is really dying from COVID? The DOH refuses to divulge those statistics but one expert has come through with this much needed information.
 |
| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/842279/recent-covid-19-deaths-mostly-those-with-comorbidities-from-vulnerable-sectors-expert/story/ |
Most of the recent COVID-19 deaths mostly involved patients with comorbidities or were from the vulnerable sectors, an infectious disease expert said Sunday.
In a Super Radyo dzBB interview, Dr. Rontgene Solante said that individuals with comorbidities and senior citizens were vulnerable to COVID-19, despite the current Omicron variant presenting only mild symptoms.
"We will not be complacent with vulnerable populations even if we say our messaging is mild, there is no problem, we cannot say that to vulnerable populations," he said.
"In fact, these people usually die because of the complications of their comorbidities," he added.
Solante added that heart complications are the usual cause of death.
"The presentation still has pneumonia. We were wondering, it was like a Delta-like presentation with high oxygen requirements and then eventually, it became difficult, the heart was affected. Heart complications are what we usually see [why] they die," he added.
DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said that based on their July 1 to August 14 data, at least 63% of these fatalities were those who were unvaccinated.
This is a good start and hopefully the DOH will follow suit and reveal the truth about these statistics. Vaccination is n preventative against either infection or death especially if one is already sick.
It turns out that the US has been helping the Philippines with its vaccination program.
 |
| https://globalnation.inquirer.net/206175/26000-filipinos-in-luzon-visayas-vaccinated-with-us-help |
In the past seven months, the United States government has helped the Philippines vaccinate over 26,000 Filipino adults and children across Luzon and the Visayas, the US embassy in the Philippines said on Monday.
This was the accomplishment of the seven-month partnership of the US Peace Corps and the Department of Health and the United States Agency for International Development‘s (USAID) “ReachHealth” project, which was recently concluded in time for the resumption of face-to-face classes in the Philippines, the embassy said in a statement.
“The US Peace Corps is proud to have worked alongside local health officials and USAID over the past several months to protect the Filipino people from COVID-19 and prepare for safe face-to-face classes this academic year,” Peace Corps Philippines Country Director Jenner Edelman said, as quoted by the US embassy.
The US embassy said that in the absence of American volunteers due to the pandemic, it was the US Peace Corps medical team that administered vaccines, pre-screened patients, and provided post-vaccination health education in various clinics and jab sites in Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite, Batangas, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, and Cebu.
The medical team also volunteered in house-to-house vaccination activities in several barangays with non-medical staff who assisted in encoding the data, the embassy said.
In addition to their primary service agreements, American volunteers from the US Peace Corps will return to the Philippines in January 2023 to support COVID-19-related activities in their host communities, the US embassy said.
Why are we only hearing about this now? Members of the US Peace Corps when house-to-house to inject people and they are set to return in January.
Last week Marcos extended the state of emergency until the end of the year. The DOH says if that had not been done then the vaccination law would have needed to be revised.
 |
| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1181487 |
The Department of Health (DOH) is recommending the amendment of Republic Act (RA) 11525 or the act expediting the vaccine procurement and administration process, providing funds thereof, and for other purposes.
The DOH said this is in case the state of calamity declaration due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is not extended.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte extended the state of calamity throughout the country for one year from Sept. 13, 2021 to Sept. 12, 2022 under Proclamation 1218.
“We are recommending the RA 11525 which is the national vaccination law for Covid-19 be amended para maipasok natin sa batas na ito na gagawin, o the amended law, itong mga considerations natin (so we can include in the amended law our considerations),” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a media briefing Tuesday.
Apart from the national vaccination drive, Vergeire noted there are other protocols which are linked with the declaration of state of calamity due to Covid-19.
These are emergency use authority (EUA) for Covid-19 jabs, emergency procurement of vaccines, tax exemptions for vaccine manufacturers and donors, price caps on medicines used for Covid-19 treatment, and additional benefits of healthcare workers.
See, how this all about control? With an extension of the state of emergency the law does not need to be followed.
Here is where the insurgency and the vaccination program intersect. Northern Samar says they need vaccines airlifted to conflict-affected areas.
 |
| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1181967 |
The Northern Samar provincial government has asked national government agencies to help in the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines to conflict-affected remote communities to speed up its vaccination program.
Northern Samar provincial health Officer Ninfa Caparroso-Kam said on Tuesday they have asked the members of the regional inter-agency task force on emerging infectious diseases and the regional task force against Covid-19 for assistance.
These rebel-infested villages are in the towns of Silvino Lobos, Las Navas, Catubig, Lapinig, and Mapanas.
Kam said providing them air support (air transport) to efficiently deliver vaccines to remote villages is a great help to achieve vaccination of more residents.
“There are several remote villages and sometimes our health workers were caught in crossfire while hiking. This is a big setback in reaching the target and this is not fair,” Kam said.
Data from the Department of Health regional office shows that Northern Samar province is one of the less performing local government units in terms of Covid-19 inoculation.
Are these far flung isolated areas really at risk for COVID-19? What are the real stats on that claim? How many isolated villages have been infected and seen deaths? Isn't isolation the key to preventing infection?
Not only are more areas deescalating to alert level 1 but infections are down across the nation. However, as always, the public is urged to "be cautious."
 |
| https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/23/octa-notes-further-decline-in-phs-covid-19-cases/ |
With a growth rate of -14 percent and less than one reproduction number, independent OCTA Research group confirmed that the country’s Covid-19 cases are declining.
Days ahead of the expiration of the State of Calamity in the entire country due to Covid-19, the number of Covid-19 infections in the Philippines continues to decline. As of Tuesday, Aug. 23, OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David disclosed that the country’s growth rate was at -14 percent with a reproduction number of .97.
“(The level of cases is still significant so we still need to be cautious but most areas in the Philippines, such as the NCR, are seeing a decline in cases),” said David in a “Laging Handa” public briefing on Tuesday, Aug. 23.
The level of cases is still significant so we need to be cautious but they are declining in most areas. How more of a mixed message can the OCTA send?
