The alleged corruption issues came on the heels of an apparent lack of concrete plans of the government to curb the local transmission of the COVID-19, inadequate testing and contact tracing capacity, an overwhelmed health system, and the scant social protection for the poor and displaced workers.
With over a hundred thousand positive COVID-19 cases, the Philippines has reverted Metro Manila and neighboring provinces to a stricter lockdown for the next two weeks but critics say that without changes to the government’s pandemic control strategies, this would be useless.
Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) union members in private and public hospitals lit a candle for Judyn Bonn Suerte, a union leader from the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center (JRRMMC) who succumbed to the virus on July 31. By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL Bulatlat.com (UPDATED: Aug. 3, 2020, 6:16 p.m.) MANILA – Members of health union…
“This should be a wake up call for the Duterte government. The press con itself is one big commentary on how the govt (mis)handled the COVID-19 response and on the poor and inadequate leadership of the Department of Health and IATF.”
With the cases increasing, concerned government agencies are swamped with backlogs, particularly on validating COVID-19 cases and an overwhelmed public health system.
Mass testing, according to the petitioners, should be made free and accessible to all suspect cases, contacts of probable and confirmed cases, frontline healthworkers, and high-risk and vulnerable communities.
“This is not at all a rational solution to the problem. This move will further deplete our pool of physicians as more doctors will be exposed to the virus and its possible fatal consequences.”
With no salary and little assistance, some OFWs in the Middle East have resorted to scavenging for food.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who heads the lead Philippine government agency in the fight against the pandemic, issued inaccurate statements and unreliable data, leaving Filipinos in doubt of his capacity to lead the country out of a public health emergency.
To save lives, the lawmakers said the government must recognize the extreme importance and urgency of mass testing along with medical solutions such as contact tracing, isolation, and treatment.
The decrease in the RITM budget is also coupled with the decline in the allotment of other related health concerns, such as the Epidemiology and Surveillance Department, with a 40-percent drop from P247 million in 2019 to P101 million this year. Since 2015, no additional isolation rooms have been built. Related story: What is RITM?…