WHO carefully monitoring PH as COVID-19 cases slightly rise

People might go bankrupt or even die due to lack of livelihood if the country will not reopen the economy during the coronavirus pandemic, a Palace official warned. 

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the country could no longer afford to keep the economy closed in the face of possible dire consequences. 

As the country seeks to further open up the economy, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that it is “carefully monitoring” the country’s current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation as it observed that cases are “slightly going up” as after the government eased the community quarantine measures in several areas. 

WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Dr. Takeshi Kasai urged countries in the region, where the Philippines is located, to stay vigilant and keep preparing for further surges of the virus. 

“I wanted to really commend the people of the Philippines who have been doing their part to comply with this lockdown. But I’m also aware how hard it has been and people need to go back to their work. Unfortunately, the present data shows that there are ongoing infections,” said Kasai during the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, July 1. 

“And after gradually easing lockdown, we’re also carefully monitoring the data and then we’re seeing it, maybe an early signal or it may not be, for example, the number of hospital occupancy is starting to slightly go up. I think it’s going to be a very important few weeks from now on,” said Kasai. 

The government’s economic team recently made several recommendations to further open up the economy, including the possibility of easing community quarantine status. The recommendations, including expanded testing strategy, localized quarantine at municipal or barangay levels and use of sufficient and safe public transportation, to enhance economic activities have been approved in principle by the Inter-Agency Task Force of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID). 

“There was a presentation made by (Finance) Secretary (Carlos) Dominguez arguing that we need to shift from priority on health to opening the economy because unless we do so, people will simply die because of lack of livelihood,” Roque said over television last Wednesday. 

“And that is why the new world view should still be wary of the disease but with testing, tracing, and treatment coupled with minimum hygiene requirements, we can proceed and open the economy because we cannot afford to keep it closed anymore, otherwise people will simply go bankrupt,” he said. Dominguez had earlier pushed for the shift of Metro Manila and Calabarzon to Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) as quickly as possible to help revive the stalled economy and provide jobs for the people. Around 67 percent of the local economy, he said, is based on the two regions. 

The finance chief said the nation must face reality the virus is not going away soon, and that “we should really begin opening” the economy. He suggested that future lockdowns must be limited at the level of barangays and companies that record high cases of coronavirus. Metro Manila has kept its General Community Quarantine (GCQ) status until July 15 after the cases of coronavirus continued to double every seven days. 

Roque earlier said the capital region did not graduate to the less restrictive quarantine level since it did not make “substantial advances” to meet the required 10-day case doubling time for a MGCQ area. 

Two provinces in Calabarzon, namely Cavite and Rizal, have also stayed under GCQ. The remaining Calabarzon provinces, namely Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon, have graduated to the more relaxed MGCQ. Roque said the government would allow the downgrading to MGCQ to boost economic activities as long as there is substantial compliance with the health data. 

Case doubling rate and critical care capacity are among the factors taken into consideration in classifying the quarantine status of a place. 

“In the study presented by Secretary Dominguez, it appeared that even in MGCQ, the economy is not open at 100% and with transport restrictions on MGCQ would actually open around 50 to 60 percent of the economy,” Roque said. 

95% of economy back in operations 

But Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said 95 percent of businesses are now back in operations as government mulls allowing higher operational level even while the National Capital Region and Cavite remains under GCQ level. 

According to Lopez, DTI is looking at increasing the capacities of business operations instead of changing the quarantine level of NCR, which accounts for 60 percent of the country’s economy, provided that businesses adhere to government protocols and health parameters in the country remain stable. 

“In such case that GCQ might be extended for much longer, DTI and Department of Tourism are also considering to increase the operating capacity of these establishments we are inspecting. This can be done even in GCQ, provided that compliance to the health and safety guidelines remains high and the health statistics in the country remain stable and manageable,” Lopez said. 

“Given those conditions, we can confidently propose an increase in the working capacity moving forward. The higher operating capacity, the more jobs and sources of income we can provide for our workers,” Lopez added. 

He also cited the high compliance rate of food establishments, ranging from 95% to 100%, which was based on official reports from daily nationwide monitoring efforts conducted by different teams from DTI, DOT, the Departments of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Health (DOH), Interior and Local Government (DILG), together with the respective local government units (LGUs). 

Thus, he said, even if NCR is still under GCQ, 95 percent of sectors are already opened and workers are mostly back to work although the government is still encouraging work from home arrangements. 

Only the remaining 5 percent will not be allowed and have to wait once the NCR is already placed under modified GCQ level. In fact, he said, they are looking at including the spa and nails salon among those earlier allowed to open to increase the capacities and services being offered. 

Lopez noted that barbershops and dine-in restaurants even under GCQ were already allowed to open earlier to increase their capacities as they employ 400,000 and 1.7 million, respectively. For BPOs, Lopez said they are allowed to operate even during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) period. 

This time, however, BPO firms are no longer required to provide accommodation facilities and shuttle services for their workers but are still encouraged to continue doing so. In addition, Lopez said that a group of travel agencies have asked to be allowed to open operations to be able to process refunds for cancelled bookings of clients. He said this will be endorsed to the IATF favorably. 

This sector was not allowed to operate or placed under Category 4, the last to be opened, on the premise that there are no travel transactions to be processed during this lockdown. Lopez also cited the need to reopen the economy along with the rest of the economic team but this will have to be balanced to protect the health of people. He said the IATF also agreed with the economic team’s proposal “to further open up the transport sector” so people can get to work. 

Three recommendations

 Meanwhile, WHO’s Kasai encouraged the Philippine government to continue to strengthen its healthcare system capacity. “ identifying the case early and isolate and treat, from there to do contact tracing of the close contact and quarantine to stop the transmission. It’s not easy but it’s so important,” he said. 

Kasai said the Philippine government should continue to encourage its people to maintain their health behavior such as practicing physical distancing, washing of hands, coughing etiquette, staying home, and wearing face masks. 

“This virus transmits from human to human to survive, so every individual has power to change the course. These actions do not only protect yourself but also your family, colleagues, friends, the vulnerable, including the healthcare workers in the community,” he said. 

Kasai urged the government to continue to improve its surveillance system. “Identify where actual infections are occurring and communicate that to the people so that the people can make informed decisions,” he said. 

“WHO takes this seriously and my staff working around the clock, not just in the capital in Manila but also in the frontline, hand in hand with the government,” he added.

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