- LGU tracing capability low
- Danger zone
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, the government’s contact tracing czar, said Thursday only 0.068 percent of local government units (LGUs) had an established contact-tracing capability, citing the results of a diagnostic survey.
Magalong, who has been holding trainings in different regions, said he gave the questionnaire to around 8,100 LGUs but only over 600 said they have established contact-tracing capability.
READ: Caloocan taps Baguio mayor for tracing tips
“Nakakalungkot lang po na talagang napakababa po ng ating contact tracing,” he said.
READ: Magalong holds tracing seminar in Pampanga
Quarantine sites
The national government’s mega quarantine facilities for COVID-19 are now over 70 percent full, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said, adding the the following mega temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs) were now in the “danger zone”: Ultra Stadium, Quezon Institute, Rizal Memorial Coliseum, Philippine Arena, and the ASEAN Convention Center.
Vergeire noted that the occupancy rate of TTMFs in Metro Manila and in Regions 1, 7, 10, and 12 was in the warning zone as of July 28.
Meanwhile, the overall occupancy rate of the 81,636 beds in TTMFs nationwide stood at 24 percent.
The government earlier discouraged home quarantine for COVID-19-positive individuals and advocated for a facility-based quarantine.
READ: DOH accredits 4 more labs for COVID-19 testing
22 more quarantine facilities
The government’s task force against COVID-19 will open 22 mega quarantine facilities in Metro Manila to accommodate the growing number of patients with mild symptoms and asymptomatic, according to testing czar Vince Dizon.
Public Works and Highways Secretary and chief isolation czar Mark Villar said a total 150 facilities that were constructed and repurposed were now being used as facilities for quarantine, isolation and off-site dormitories of COVID-19 patients and frontline workers.
Citing the latest “We Heal as One” Report, Villar said that of the 150 facilities, 19 were newly-constructed and 131 were DPWH-constructed evacuation centers that were recently repurposed as COVID-19 facilities.
August caseload
Meanwhile, the number of Filipinos tested for COVID-19 virus will have reached two million by August, Dizon said Thursday.
Dizon said the country was on track to meet such a target, considering that it already breached its earlier target of conducting 30,000 tests per day last July 25 with 33,000 tests conducted.
Based on Health Department’s records, there are at least 1.32 million Filipinos tested for COVID-19 as of July 28.
Dizon said such number was more than the number of individuals tested by Malaysia (932,000), Japan (780,000) and Indonesia (700,000).
Nurses’ plaint
At the same time, the Filipino Nurses United (FNU) on Thursday bewailed the scarcity of health care workers as government hospitals increased the bed capacity to respond to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.
“There’s a severe scarcity in health care personnel especially nurses while COVID-19 cases increase,” said FNU national president Maristela Abenojar.
Under the Department of Health’s One Hospital Command strategy, public hospitals should allocate as much as 70 percent of total bed capacity for COVID-19 cases, up from the previous 30 percent capacity.
Hazard pay
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said Thursday the government should regularize and promote medical front liners and release their hazard pay.
“As to promotion, if the mass testing on the public cannot be done, let’s do the mass promotion of those working (medical front liners,” he said.
Recto said there were two kinds of job promotion— one through what is called in government-speak a step increase, the other is promotion to the next Salary Grade.
“They have been marooned in that category. Pandemic or not, they deserve to be bumped up the pay scale.”
Stranded individuals
Malacañang on Thursday vowed to address the lapses in the implementation of the Hatid Tulong program after photos of locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) cramming inside Rizal Memorial Stadium last weekend drew flak from the public.
READ: DPWH thanks PSC for use of facilities
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque explained that over-crowding in the stadium was due to the unexpected influx of LSIs who failed to register their intention to be sent home.
“Whatever your complaints are, we will address them and the President admitted that we are far from being perfect. But perhaps we will make sure that we will be able to help our neighbors, our LSIs),” he said.