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Friday, March 29, 2024

A delicate balance

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A delicate balance"The trend has been alarming."

 

 

We are halfway through July. Last month, we nearly reached the 40,000-mark on the number of COVID-19 cases. In two weeks, the number increased by almost 20,000. While we struggle to balance economic recovery and curbing COVID-19 transmission, the scale tilts against our favor.

The Department of Health (DOH) reports more than a thousand new COVID-19 cases each day since the end of June. The trend now is very alarming. If this continues, our health care system may not be enough to accommodate all COVID-19 patients. Just this week, major hospitals in Metro Manila have already declared full capacity of COVID-19 facilities. Other Metro Manila hospitals have earlier reached maximum capacity of their ICU facilities. DOH clarified that this full capacity only pertains to the dedicated COVID-19 beds and not the entire hospital. Despite this, the accelerated rise in the number of COVID-19 patients puts health care workers and health professionals in unfavorable and deleterious working conditions. Since March, our health care workers have been manning the frontlines, every day facing the risk of getting infected. Now, more patients come in with the still limited and even decreasing number of health care workers and personal protective suits and equipment available in hospitals.

Stringent public health standards are currently implemented. It cannot be emphasized enough that wearing face masks and strict physical distancing are our primary protection. However, many still do not wear masks properly, which tends to defeat the purpose of protecting one’s self. Some stand too close together. At this point, we need radical solutions to resolve this COVID-19 crisis.

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The government recently proposed quarantine in temporary isolation facilities for mild or asymptomatic COVID-positive patients, instead of home quarantine as the latter may contribute to the spread of the virus within the family and the community. At present, there are more than 12,000 suspect and probable cases nationwide. Our current available isolation beds are 52,223, sufficient to cater to these patients. This may be a viable solution to reduce risk of transmission in the community.

Work-from-home arrangements can limit the spread of the virus. In exchange, the government should provide incentives or tax breaks to these companies and to their employees to further promote this type of arrangement and encourage people to stay at home. Until a cure is found, this should be the preferred set-up. The reduction in overhead costs can be used by companies to give electricity and internet allowances to their employees who may have to pay extra amounts in their bills.

On the other hand, other companies who cannot avoid physical reporting to work must strictly comply with the set guidelines by the DOH and the Department of Trade and Industry. Perhaps, the DTI should implement issuing health permits and strict screening and evaluation of the companies’ compliance to these health standards before allowing them to resume operations. Given the experiences of private and public entities in rapid testing, we can require companies to conduct rapid testing before allowing employees to physically return to work, subject to the guidelines imposed by the DOH.

These are drastic solutions we should consider in order to contain disease transmission. However, improving contact tracing to identify potential COVID-19 carriers remains to be the priority. I highly urge the government to look into these propositions. As we need to maintain economic activities, such sacrifices may be necessary in order to protect the people and the community. Should we fail to maintain this balance and community transmission becomes uncontrollable, reverting to stricter quarantine measures may be the only solution we have left.

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