WHO: FOCUS ON HEALTH SYSTEM, NOT ON INFECTION NUMBERS

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday pointed out that it was “not important” that the Philippines now accounted for the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the Western Pacific region as it stressed that the focus should instead be on ensuring that the country’s health system is not overwhelmed.

Though the Philippines now has the most number of cases in the region, Dr. Takeshi Kasai,

WHO Western Pacific regional director, recognized that the government was able to prevent a “significant number of infections” and deaths, as well as averted the health system from being overwhelmed when it decided to place the country on lockdown during the earliest stage of the pandemic in March.

“How much the Philippines’ cases account for in the Western Pacific is not important. But what is important is that if these numbers move toward the direction [that it] overwhelms the health-care facilities,” Kasai told reporters.

“So far, we haven’t really seen that the number has overwhelmed their health-care facilities,” he added.

Quarantine measures eased

Two weeks ago, the Philippines’ medical community pleaded for “timeout,” saying the country was “waging a losing battle” against COVID-19.

More than 160 medical groups asked the government to place Metro Manila and four surrounding provinces on tight lockdown for two weeks and use that time to review and refine its coronavirus response.

President Duterte heeded their call and reverted Metro Manila and the nearby provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal to the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine, which ended on Tuesday.

On Monday night, the President ordered the metropolis and the four provinces back to the moderate general community quarantine to further reopen the country’s economy despite having the most reported coronavirus infections in the Western Pacific region.

Capacity buildup

Most businesses, including shopping malls and restaurants that serve seated diners, and Roman Catholic Church services will be allowed to partially resume starting Wednesday with restrictions, including masks and social distancing, up to the end of August.

Kasai acknowledged that the Philippines had been “continuously improving [its] capacity” in such areas as testing, contact tracing and managing cases.

“I think it is very important for the government to continue to improve this capacity. And also ... to continue to communicate with the people, encourage them to maintain their healthy behavior,” Kasai said.

“It is very important for everybody to voluntarily do very similar things so that we can continue to suppress [the virus] and not to overwhelm the health-care facilities in this country,” he added.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported an additional 4,836 cases, bringing the national tally to 169,213. Of the new cases submitted by 84 of the 105 accredited laboratories, 4,223 got sick between Aug. 5 and 18, while 290 fell ill between Aug. 1 and 4.

On the eve of the easing of quarantine measures, the five areas that were exiting lockdown reported the most number of cases. Metro Manila topped the list with 2,959 cases, followed by Laguna (321), Cavite (220), Rizal (185) and Bulacan (145).

The DOH listed 53,665 active cases, of which 91.5 percent were mild, 6.2 percent asymptomatic, 0.9 percent severe, and 1.3 percent critical. It said 182 more patients had

recovered, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 112,861.

The death toll, however, rose to 2,687 with the deaths of seven more patients. All seven died this month. Two of the fatalities were from Calabarzon, and one each from Central Luzon, Bicol, Central Visayas, Zamboanga and Davao.

Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega said the two-week lockdown allowed the DOH to set up and strengthen its One Hospital Command system, which provided greater coordination among hospitals in referring sick patients.

Vega, however, admitted that call center operations needed to be expanded in the coming days to better accommodate calls and provide “coordinated care.”

He also said that compared with figures last month, COVID-19 capacity has increased by 10 percent to 20 percent in private hospitals, and by 17 percent to 35 percent in public hospitals.

Add to that, the newly constructed hospital wing of East Avenue Medical Center was also designated as a COVID-19 center, with 250 beds and 30 intensive care beds.

The Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19, which groups more than 160 medical organizations representing more than a million health workers, said it had seen improvements in the coronavirus response during the twoweek lockdown.

“A lot of things happened in the past two weeks. Gradually, a robust plan against COVID-19 was being developed,” said Dr. Antonio Dans, spokesperson for the alliance.

“There were changes in plans, in the system. Hopefully, these will be properly implemented,” he said.

Dans said the alliance was recommending the expansion of One Hospital Command to handle outpatients seeking consultation or testing.

The recommendation also included coordination of pharmacies, clinics, laboratories and other medical services, he said.