WHO disowns statement putting PH in a bad light
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said that it did not issue an assessment that the Philippines had the “fastest rise” in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Western Pacific region.
WHO Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe clarified that the international organization has not made such an interpretation.
“It is not the World Health Organization that did this. I’ve seen a lot of comments and commentaries, points of view that the World Health Organization did this. The World Health Organization does not compare countries or make such assessments,” said Abeyasinghe during the “Laging Handa” press briefing.
“It is unfair to say that the WHO has made that comment or assessment. We did not,” he added.
Abeyasinghe said that the Philippines has been “doing relatively well in comparison to many of the affected countries.”
“We are happy that the Philippines went into a very early lockdown which actually helped prevent possibly hundreds of thousands of cases and thousands of deaths,” he said.
‘Poor compliance’
The WHO official, however, said that “poor compliance” with the DOH guidelines to mitigate the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 is a “worrying situation.”
“The compliance with the requirements with the guidelines coming from the DOH does not seem to be universally good,” said Abeyasinghe.
“The DOH has come up with very good guidelines on how to manage positive cases, how to quarantine them – but the implementation at local government levels in different areas of the country is different. So we see poor compliance with the guidelines, we are seeing that number of cases increasing and this is actually becoming a worrying situation,” he added.
Abeysinghe also said that the Philippines needs to step up its contact tracing efforts.
“What we are advocating is that the DOH and the government – as they invest in expanding testing capacity – to invest (also) in actually contact tracing, identifying contacts, and quarantining and isolating them so that we prevent further transmission from those cases,” said Abeyasinghe.
“Unfortunately, this aspect of the Philippine response needs a little more strengthening. There is improvement in the last month but is not keeping pace with the pace of the expansion of the testing capacity,” he said.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that the country has lapses when it comes to contact tracing efforts.
“Actually those are valid observations. Meron naman talaga tayong observations na ganyan that some LGUs meron talaga tayong kakakulangan for contact tracing (Actually those are valid observations. We do have some observations that some LGUs lack contact tracing efforts),” she said in a separate press briefing.