Necessary breather

The heart of the pleas of doctors, nurses, and other health workers for a lockdown is this — is 15 days too much to ask for?

Any other issues raised but which does not answer this direct question rings hollow — a denial of what must be done immediately.

(As I write this, Mr. Duterte approved a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) for Metro Manila and some outlying provinces.)

What is the worth and validity of two weeks of a stricter “medical quarantine?”

“We have to break the chain of transmission,” says Dr. Jose Santiago, president of the Philippine Medical Association.

The distress call for a lockdown from doctors then was meant to wrestle down the untrammeled virus contagion of recent days.

By all indications, the country in recent days is off course on controlling the pandemic. In fact, the doctors’ groups issued their joint statement as the country posted record highs in the number of cases in the past few days, pushing the total to 103,185 infections as of 2 August.

Projection models from a joint University of the Philippines (UP) and University of Santo Tomas (UST) study also say the country can reach 150,000 cases by the end of this month, if nothing dramatic is done immediately.

Virus transmissions in communities isn’t the only fact off the charts.

Overworked, usually underpaid health workers, needing quick relief is an undeniable fact, in spite of their avowed medical vocation. Full-capacity hospitals in Metro Manila closing doors, too, is undeniable.

What we now have, declared the doctors, is that “our health care system has been overwhelmed.”

Doctors’ groups referring to their proposed two-week ECQ as a “time-out” is apt. “Health workers are suffering burnout with seemingly endless number of patients trooping to our hospitals for emergency care and admission,” says Santiago.

For health workers, fatigue is even a benign problem compared to them getting infected. As of last week, the Department of Health (DoH) recorded 4,823 health workers were infected, with 38 dead.

“What we now have, declared the doctors, is that our health care system has been overwhelmed.

“With the economy in shambles, hospitals filling up and the public frustrated and anxious, the country is exhausted. But the virus is not.

In short, the health workers’ distress cry is a very human plea. Rest or time to recover from disease is the unavoidable human need.

Doubts have been raised about hospitals declaring full capacity. In fact, the clueless and leaderless DoH itself insists hospitals only need to expand its facilities.

But doctors’ groups say that even if hospitals can expand capacity, they couldn’t — there were not enough health workers to look after patients.

Government plans to recruit more health workers are also going awry. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire says there are not enough applicants for medical frontline jobs.

While health workers really do fear losing the battle against COVID-19, they also say government should use the next 15 days as the time to “recalibrate strategies against COVID-19.”

The return to a lockdown is therefore also a simultaneous demand to actually do something about the pandemic.

Once Metro Manila is placed back on a stricter lockdown, the medical community hopes such problems as the inadequate number of hospital personnel, poor detection, isolation, contact tracing, inadequate transportation and workplace safety, and public compliance with self-protection are thoroughly addressed.

Government should also ready cash aid packages for those whose livelihood would be affected during the duration of the “time-out.” In sum, the doctors are saying the coronavirus is now spreading at dangerous levels, and they are pleading for a dramatic reset in the national response, one that recognizes the crisis is intensifying and that current strategies aren’t working.

With the economy in shambles, hospitals filling up and the public frustrated and anxious, the country is exhausted. But the virus is not.

Yet, there is enough fight left in health workers. A little breather will go a long way. Neither is it the time to be piqued by criticism, particularly if it comes from the people who daily witness pandemic casualties.