WE are days away from the end of the second enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila, which the national government imposed from August 6 to 20 precisely to contain the spread of COVID-19 infections in the communities of the National Capital Region.
While the people are ready to cooperate and live with the imposed wearing of face masks and face shields, social distancing, washing of hands and general personal hygiene, we note that the daily cases of infection have increased.
The OCTA Research group which tracks local statistics related to the epidemic said the metropolis recorded around 3,900 new infections on August 15, the day the nation logged more than 14,249 new cases. The reproduction number continues to increase, it was pointed out.
‘Perhaps the Inter-Agency
Task Force (IATF) leading
the government’s fight against
the pandemic should come up with a reliable measurement on whether we are really getting the intended positive results from these lockdowns.’
More patients being hospitalized has resulted in congestion in our primary hospitals which are in the frontline of fighting the epidemic: the Philippine General Hospital, the San Lazaro Hospital, Ospital ng Maynila, and world-class private medical centers. Clearly, the nation’s health care system is being stretched to the limit.
Another bleak news just came in, saying more children are getting hospitalized at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, and Dr. Rontgene Solante, chairman of its Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Unit, attributed this to the highly transmissible Delta variant of the SARS CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
Solante’s warning reflects the opinion of other health experts: “The transmissibility has extended not only for adults but also to younger age groups. And most of the sources of these younger age group are also coming from their parents or from their caretakers.”
Against this backdrop is the call by the business community and the economic team that the economy is already feeling the pain of the lockdown. Business owners and their workers do not need the NEDA to remind them that the “NCR Plus” bubble area is suffering at least P150 billion worth of losses a week. They do not need the Department of Trade and Industry to confirm that a two-week lockdown would mean P30 billion worth of wage losses and affect 1.8 million workers and their families. The pain is in their hearts and their stomachs.
Perhaps the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) leading the government’s fight against the pandemic should come up with a reliable measurement on whether we are really getting the intended positive results from these lockdowns.
Such a measurement, if definitive and reliable, should go hand in hand with Science in arriving at a more practical policy to strike a balance between the economy and the protection of people’s health.
