VICE President Leni Robredo yesterday urged the administration to determine if the 14-day return of Metro Manila and other provinces to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) was able to achieve its goal of giving frontliners a breather and slowing down the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“Tingin ko malaki (MECQ) ang effect pero tingin ko mas malaking question iyong nagamit ba natin na maayos iyong past 12 days? Kasi ika-12th day ngayon. Nagamit ba natin ng maayos para makahabol ng kaunti o mapahingahan ng kaunti iyong mga ospital? (I think it has a huge effect but the bigger question is, did we use the past 12 days efficiently? It’s the 12th day today. Have we used it to efficiently to catch up and give our hospital workers some rest?)” she said during her radio program Biserbisyong Leni aired over RMN-DZXL last Sunday.
Robredo however admitted it would be difficult to judge if the MECQ has been effective in bringing down the number COVID-19 patients for as long as the Department of Health’s (DOH) turnaround reports on new cases, recoveries and fatalities are always late.
The Vice President said some of the reports are carried over from July, the first week of August, and from few days ago “so we hope this will be reported real-time because it’s hard to gauge the effects of the MECQ.”
“Hindi pa natin nakikita ngayon iyong effect ng MECQ dahil iyong turnaround ng reports ay hindi real-time (We haven’t seen the effect MECQ because the turnaround reports aren’t real-time),” she said.
Robredo said the DOH needs to study if it has met its MECQ goals, noting that 4,000 cases were recorded just last Saturday.
She said provincial hospitals badly need testing cartridges to test samples, noting that Legazpi City, alone, has a backlog of at least 2,000.
Safety in quarantine facilities is also an important concern, Robredo added, since the DOH has to ensure that persons under investigations (PUI) will not contract the disease in their quarantine areas.
This is why test results should be readily available and the turnaround time be expedited for an efficient contact tracing.
“Kapag makukuha mo iyong resulta ng test after five days, after seven days, mahirap. So mahirap masabi (If you get results after five days, after seven days, it’s difficult, it’s hard to tell. It’s hard to tell),” said the Vice President.
Robredo also questioned the decision of the DOH and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to change the protocol by no longer subjecting recovering patients to swab tests at the end of their quarantine period.
“Kapag nakumpleto mo iyong quarantine, hindi ka na ite-test, i-a-assume nalang na negative ka na. Hindi ko alam, Ka Ely, how efficient at saka how effective iyon. Pero iyon ang desisyon ng DOH saka IATF (If you finish your quarantine, you’ll no longer be tested and you’ll be assumed to have tested negative. I don’t know, Ka Ely, how efficient and effective that is but that’s the decision of the DOH and the IATF),” she told anchor Ely Saludar.
DUTERTE IN DAVAO
The President is expected to make his announcement on the status of Metro Manila along with Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal from Davao City where he is set to meet with members of the Cabinet on Monday.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque and Presidential Security Group (PG) commander Colonel Jesus Durante III both denied reports that the President was airlifted from Davao City to Singapore on Saturday for a medical emergency.
Reports said a Lear jet was sent Saturday afternoon to pick up the President who allegedly arrived in Singapore Saturday night.
“Not true,” Durante said while Roque said there is “always another jet parked in Davao” but the President did not leave the county over the weekend.
“The Chief Executive is in the Philippines and closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation in the country,” Roque said.
Asked if Duterte would take another COVID-19 test, amid the alleged medical trip and the testing positive for COVID-19 of interior Secretary Eduardo Año, Durante said it “depends on (his) doctors’ advice.”
Roque said apart from Año, all Cabinet officials who met Duterte in Davao City last August 10 had tested negative for COVID-19. He said they took the test before they flew to Davao City. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
