Philippines’ anti-COVID-19 czars
“Oplan Kalinga program will be intensifying its efforts to bring the asymptomatic and COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms to quarantine or isolation facilities. “With
the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, the IATF and the NTF saw it fit to intensify even more our COVID-19 response measures, hoping that a more focused action on each of the National Action Plan’s components will result to bringing the COVID-19 situation back under control.
The Philippines’ strategy in its fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) revolves around a more stringent testing, tracing, isolation, and treatment.
And so, in our 14 July meeting, the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) officially recognized and adopted the designation of chief implementers for the individual components of the national strategy against COVID-19.
As I have announced and introduced them in my previous media briefing in Malacañang, the four anti-COVID-19 czars are: Deputy Chief Implementer Secretary Vivencio Dizon as chief testing czar; Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong as chief tracing czar; Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar as chief isolation czar; and Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega as chief treatment czar. All four will be under NTF Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. who oversees the implementation of the country’s National Action Plan against COVID-19.
With the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, the IATF and the NTF saw it fit to intensify even more our COVID-19 response measures, hoping that a more focused action on each of the National Action Plan’s components will result to bringing the COVID-19 situation back under control.
To do this, Chief Implementer Sec Galvez said that the Phase II of the National Action Plan against COVID-19 will focus on containing and managing emerging new cases, sustaining gains and continuing capacity building and resiliency, rebalancing health and economy, localizing response and keeping the fatality rate low.
To effectively manage COVID-19 while balancing health and economy, there is a need now to shift responsibility more to the local government units (LGU) in enforcing localized and granular lockdowns in hotspot areas; to private companies in ensuring business confidence by making sure that their individual employees’ are tested against COVID-19 regularly, among others; and to the individual citizen to continue practicing the minimum health standards and obeying quarantine protocols.
In terms of testing, Chief Testing Czar Secretary Dizon announced during our visit to Taguig on 14 July, that we have already achieved one million COVID-19 PCR tests, having reached 25,000 daily tests as of 9 July — almost near our 30,000 daily tests target by the end of the month. Expect daily test numbers to increase in the coming days as we now have the 10 million PCR test kits that the government ordered, plus the existence of 85 COVID-19 laboratories that we currently have.
Next to testing, intensified tracing will now be a chief responsibility of new Chief Tracing Czar Mayor Magalong, who said that his strategy will be to first intensify the skills of contact tracers through training as effective tracers are key to finding all possible contacts of a COVID-19 positive patient. Mayor Magalong added that he will also be sharing with other LGU a contact tracing e-system composed of a COVID-19 data collection tool, a GIS (geographical information system) platform, and a Link Analysis Tool, plus a radical change in the contact tracing framework. Once all possible contacts have been traced, it is now imperative to have them isolated. Health Secretary Francisco Duque and Secretary Dizon also announced on 14 July in Taguig, where we were invited along with other members of the IATF, that the Oplan Kalinga program will be intensifying its efforts to bring the asymptomatic and COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms to quarantine or isolation facilities. They also announced that home quarantine will only be allowed now if patients have the ideal home quarantine setup: a separate room, toilet and bath, and no vulnerable household members.
Therefore, if a COVID-19 positive patient who is asymptomatic or with mild symptoms do not have a separate room and a separate toilet and bath to use, and is living with an elderly, pregnant woman, or those with existing health conditions, they will not be allowed for home quarantine. They are advised to coordinate with their LGU so that through the Oplan Kalinga, they can be picked up from their homes or wherever they are, and brought to a designated isolation facility where they can get proper care and treatment.
And with Secretary Villar as the new Chief Isolation Czar, we are guaranteed that there will be enough quarantine facilities to go around, as he reported that aside from the existing 129 regional evacuation centers nationwide, they are also building quarantine
facilities in Region 7 (11), Region 8 (16), Region 10 (20), and in Region 12 (3). Secretary Villar also reported that we currently have 52, 223 available isolation beds in Ligtas COVID Centers in local isolation facilities, while there are 3,193 isolation beds in We Heal As One Mega Ligtas Centers.
Lastly, in terms of treatment and ensuring that we have enough critical care capacity, Chief Treatment Czar Undersecretary Vega said that among the immediate steps that the Department of Health will focus on is to expand hospital capacity by increasing COVID-19 bed allocations, provide additional health care personnel even for private hospitals, and provide supply augmentation for all private and public hospitals. Undersecretary Vega heads the Hospital One Incident Command that is in charge of both public and private hospitals and quarantine facilities in terms of planning healthcare capacity, among others.
With the designation of these very able and hard-working anti-COVID-19 czars, we can be assured that we are on the right track to winning against COVID-19. Let us all cooperate and beat COVID-19 as one.