Local government units have been called up to adopt tough measures to prevent the spread of the now declared world emergency which has killed at least 259 and infected nearly 12,000 in China alone.
This developed as two military facilities are being considered for quarantine, more flights to China being canceled, and a two-week quarantine in schools strongly proposed.
Health officials said they visited the naval station on Caballo Island at the mouth of Manila Bay on Friday and were scheduled to visit the Drug Rehabilitation in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija during the weekend.
But Dr. Bu Castro, spokesperson of the Philippine Hospital Association of the Philippines said local hospitals were ready to handle the nCoV virus.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Saturday ordered local government executives to adopt the ironclad measures to intensify the information campaign on the virus and report possible contamination in their respective areas.
Promotion of health
In Memorandum Circular 2020-018, Año cited a provision in the Constitution and the Local Government Code which provides that local government units are in charge of the promotion of health and safety within their jurisdictions.
As such, they must take the lead in the prevention and control of the coronavirus at the local level, he said.
The order followed confirmation by the Department of Health of the first nCoV patient in the Philippines, prompting government agencies and the private sector to adopt precautionary measures to prevent contagion.
“We need to be preventive now that there is a confirmed 2019 nCoV case in the country. Our governors, city and municipal mayors and DILG regional directors must ensure that the coronavirus will not thrive in their backyards,” Año said.
On Wednesday, the DOH reported that a 38-year-old Chinese woman who traveled from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus, had been infected with the nCoV and was currently quarantined at the government-run San Lazaro Hospital in Manila.
At the same time, private hospitals have been reminded they are not allowed to refuse or discriminate against Chinese nationals and patients suspected of the disease, the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. said Saturday.
In an interview on Dobol B sa News TV aired on GMA News TV and beamed nationwide, PHAPi president Dr. Rustico Jimenez urged the public to report to the association or the Department of Health private hospitals that refuse to treat or accord immediate medical attention to any patient.
On Friday, the DOH said big hospitals in the country were not allowed to turn away patients exhibiting symptoms of nCoV.
READ: DOH to big hospitals: You can’t turn away suspected nCoV patients
‘Don’t turn away patients’
“They are being reminded that they can’t turn away patients because of suspected nCoV … they have to treat them and manage them within the facility,” Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo told a news briefing.
Meanwhile, Malacañang appealed to the public to remain calm and avoid discriminatory behavior against foreigners amid threats of the nCoV.
Martin Andanar, secretary of Presidential Communications Operations Office, urged Filipinos not to sow fear-mongering and misinformation following reports of discriminatory behavior against Chinese citizens and the surge of misleading information about nCoV.
“As the issue of a viral outbreak affects everyone, let us not engage in discriminatory behavior, nor act with any bias towards our fellowmen. The reality is every one is susceptible to the virus,” Andanar said in a statement.
“We should not let fear turn us against one another, especially if these fears are unfounded. We must not stigmatize people, especially when they are at their most vulnerable, but emphatize with them instead,” he added.
Andanar also asked the traders not to hoard face masks amid reports of shortage.
“We ask the public not to hoard face masks and create an unneccesary scarcity, that may prevent others from taking precautionary measures to protect themselves,” he said.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo himself earlier warned traders hoarding masks that they would be raided by the Philippine National Police, saying they should not take advantage of the situation.
Panelo also said manufacturers should produce more face masks recommended by health experts as a protection against the virus.
Government response
In Congress, Rep. Ronnie Ong of Ang Probinsyano Party-list said government response on the NCoV outbreak was chaotic and the command-and-control mechanism was not quickly established, thereby causing delays in the implementation of counter-measures especially in the country’s ports and airports.
He said this also contributed a lot in the ensuing public panic primarily caused by the surge of what he called fake news and exaggerated information spreading through social media and other information platforms.
“Our experience with the NCoV should serve as a wake-up call and prompt the creation of an established protocol that is proactive and can be activated automatically at the slightest hint of a disease outbreak,” Ong said.
This developed as Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said President Rodrigo Duterte’s order banning the entry of Chinese nationals from Hubei Province “is patently superfluous.”
“The subject area has earlier been on lockdown or placed on quarantine by Chinese authorities preventing the exit of people,” Lagman said.
“What is imperative is to ban flights to and from the entire Chinese mainland, including Hong Kong,” Lagman said
He added the health and safety of Filipinos must be paramount over diplomatic niceties, tourism revenues, and income of Philippine airline companies.
The ban must also include the arrival of Chinese nationals and other tourists from China in cruise ships and other vessels, Lagman added.
Subic joins checkpoints
Northwest of Manila, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority has announced that foreign tourists in Subic found to be showing symptoms, such as high fever, cough, or colds, would be sent back to their countries.
SBMA Administrator Wilma Eisma made the announcement on Friday, days after transport terminals in Subic Bay were placed on heightened alert status as part of the drastic measures against the 2019-nCoV.
Eisma said the Bureau of Quarantine and the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit would serve as lead government agencies that will monitor foreign nationals who want to visit Subic.
“We will be instituting controls at Tipo, Rizal, Magsaysay, 14th and Kalaklan gates, with the Bureau of Quarantine and Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit as lead agencies,” Eisma said in a statement.
“All foreign nationals will be subject to temperature check and physical observation for cough or colds. All who are positive for high temperature, cough, or colds will be sent back and not allowed entry.”
The heightened alert status recently imposed by the SBMA covers both seaports and an airport in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, which regularly hosts cruise ships plying the Southeast Asian route.
In Baguio City, the Philippine Military Academy is implementing precautionary measures against the possible spread of the virus by temporarily prohibiting tourists from entering the facility until the third week of February.
Maj. Reynan Afan, acting chief of the PMA public affairs office, said the academy is now only allowing relatives of the 1,100 cadets to enter the premises but only after having been checked by staff of PMA station hospital.
Reduced flights
In the country’ s airports, two major airlines in the Philippines have started reducing flights to and from China this February until March.
“In the public interest, beginning February 1, 2020, we are reducing our flights between Manila and Greater China by over 50 percent,” said Philippine Airlines spokesperson Cielo Villaluna in a statement.
She added, “There is a need to maintain a number of our flights on the various Manila-China routes, so that we can serve the urgent travel needs of our passengers, including many Chinese nationals returning to the mainland following their Lunar New Year holidays, and Filipinos who are returning home from their stays in China.”
The affected PAL flights include those to and from Xiamen, Jinjiang, Beijing, Shanghai, Pudong, Macau, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong.
Villaluna clarified that all other Manila-China and China-Manila flights were still operational.
“Nonetheless, we expect that we will need to further reduce our China flights in the coming weeks, based on our daily assessment of the situation and subject to guidelines and instructions from the Department of Health and Bureau of Quarantine and concerned government authorities,” she said.
PAL urged clients to continue to check advisories in the coming weeks for any further changes.
It stated that rebooking and rerouting are allowed for travel until June 30, 2020 with penalties waived.
The Cebu Pacific Air, meanwhile, announced it would be canceling all flights between the Philippines and mainland China”•Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shenzen”•from Feb. 2 to March 29, 2020.
It also stated that flights between the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Macau, on the other hand, had been reduced.
The two airlines earlier confirmed that the 38-year old woman tested positive for novel coronavirus took their flights.
Flight trail
The woman took CEB connecting flights”•Hong Kong to Cebu and Cebu to Dumaguete on Jan. 21, and took a PAL flight from Dumaguete to Manila on Jan. 25.
“We are in the process of contacting passengers seated in the vicinity of the positive NCoV patient and are taking the necessary precautions to inform them so they can have themselves checked in case they show flu-like symptoms,” the CEB management said in an earlier statement.
The CEB cabin crew and pilots on affected flights have also been informed but have shown no symptoms of illness.
The aircraft used for the two connecting flights have been pulled out of the line and are undergoing thorough disinfection.
PAL, on the other hand, said earlier it was in close coordination with the government to locate and contact other passengers of the said flight “in accordance with established safety protocols for dealing with a case of this nature.”
The airline management immediately provided the concerned agencies with the necessary flight manifest data of the flight.
The Quarantine bureau will take charge of placing the concerned passengers and crew under medical observation.
The PAL management also placed the flight crew”•two pilots and four cabin crew”•on quarantine.
“We reaffirm Philippine Airlines’ constant readiness to promote the safety of our passengers and crew in compliance with the highest international public health standards,” it stated.
At the same time, direct Hong Kong flights to and from Iloilo province will be canceled from Feb. 4 to March 29 to contain the spread of the nCoV, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said.
Meanwhile, the flights from Iloilo to Singapore and vice versa stay. Singapore to Iloilo flights are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Hong Kong and Singapore have confirmed nCoV cases.
Although the Cebu Pacific Air maintains its Singapore and Iloilo flights, officials gave assurances precautionary measures were being done at the Iloilo International Airport to prevent the entry of infected passengers.
Passengers monitored
“We have close monitoring in all arriving passengers. There are two thermal scanners used by the Bureau of Quarantine-Iloilo to detect feverish passengers,” he said.
Advisories in preventing the virus are also posted at the airport and face masks are distributed to the front liners.
On Thursday, Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. has sought the Cebu Pacific Air’s temporary cessation of international flights to protect the province from the virus.
The move was backed by Iloilo’s local chief executives through a resolution calling for the cancellation of flights.
Meanwhile, Ro-Ann Bacal, regional director of the National Economic and Development Authority in Western Visayas, said the cancellation of Iloilo to Hong Kong flights might have a short-term impact on the region.
“There will be an impact on the establishments that cater to these visitors, hotels, restaurants, transportation but it might be better for us to protect our citizens from potential danger because it will be more expensive for us when it comes to the region. It will be very expensive and it might even more devastating,” she said in an interview Friday.
These were developing during the weekend as several universities in Manila advised their students and faculty members to undergo a two-week self-quarantine if they had traveled abroad amid fears of nCoV.
Ateneo de Manila University, Far Eastern University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines and Adamson University have recommended their students and school personnel to take a leave from class or work, if they had come from countries that recorded cases of nCoV or if they exhibit symptoms of flu.
University apologizes
The memorandum also asked Chinese citizens to hold off conducting transactions with the university.
The university clarified on Saturday that all students and faculty members who traveled to and from countries with confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus should practice self-quarantine.
“This Memorandum modifies the previous one released, and we apologize for the misimpression it may have created,” Adamson University said.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization has declared the spread of nCoV as a global emergency, with 18 countries confirming cases of the deadly virus.
The vast majority of the cases detected globally have been in China”•where the virus originated in an illegal wildlife market in the city of Wuhan.
READ: From bats to humans? Analysis shows possible sources of virus
More face masks
Nearly 100 cases have emerged in other countries, prompting travel ban, increasing demand for face masks, and anti-China sentiment across the globe.
The DOH said that nCOV symptoms included cough and colds, fever, difficulty in breathing, and shortness of breath, which can lead to pneumonia, bronchitis, kidney problems, and even death.
In the directive, Año said there was a growing concern over the outbreak of the coronavirus around the world. Unless properly addressed, he said, the crisis it created might have adverse impact on business productivity, tourism, and mobility of people, and could even lead to death.
“The lack of information or misinformation about the coronavirus engenders paranoia where coronavirus suspects, their next of kin, neighborhood, or community may be ostracized by the public at large,” Año said.
“In extreme situations, lack of information or disinformation on coronavirus may even lead to social unrest in a community,” he added.
Año said local chief executives must consult local health officers on the guidelines and protocol on safety measures, prevention, and control of the virus in their localities. They should also disseminate information materials such as flyers, brochures, posters and put up billboards about the virus, and tap the local media in conveying this message, he added. With PNA
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