The government’s plan to gather stranded individuals at the Rizal Memorial Sports Stadium violated social distancing protocols and put people at risk of being infected with COVID-19, Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said Monday.
“It’s sad that this happened. We have relayed the protocols to the specific agencies, the reminder that mass gatherings are prohibited, but it still happened,” Vergeire said at a virtual press briefing.
She says they have relayed the incident to the Interior department and other government agencies.
Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez said Monday he wanted the Hatid Tulong program organizer fired over the stranded people’s condition at the Rizal Sports Complex, where they are packed.
He told Dobol B sa News TV that he wrote an open letter urging President Rodrigo Duterte to fire whoever organized the program for “incompetence, insensitivity and disregard of public health.”
Nine stranded individuals who gathered at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila over the weekend have tested positive for COVID-19 following rapid tests, a government official said Monday.
Hatid Tulong Program lead convenor and Presidential Management Staff Assistant Secretary Joseph Encabo said those who tested positive were immediately isolated and subjected to confirmatory swab tests.
“Once the result is negative [RT-PCR test], we allow them to travel based on the assessment and evaluation of the medical doctors. If they tested positive, we have an available quarantine facility and [we will] bring them there. The DOH [Department of Health] will handle the management of those LSIs,” he said.
The government likewise drew flak for bringing in a Philippine National Police band to serenade the people inside the jampacked venue.
Vergeire said the members of the band had to remove their face masks to be able to play their wind instruments. But she said it was not the presence of the band but the violation of social distancing and mass gathering rules that placed the stranded people’s health at risk.
About 7,500 stranded individuals had been made to gather and stay at the baseball field of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex following days of rain and hot temperature, Presidential Management Staff Assistant Secretary Joseph Encabo said on Saturday.