MANILA (SE): On August 28, the Philippine Department of Health recorded 19.441 Covid-19 cases—up from the 18,332 recorded on August 23. Authorities opted to extend the duration modified enhanced community quarantine [MECQ] for the national capital region [NCR] from August 31 to September 7. The tally was up from the 18,332 recorded on August 23. The MCR had been under extended community quarantine [ECQ] up until August 20 when it was relaxed to allow more businesses to operate and reduce to the financial pain of poor families..
The record tally brought the country’s caseload to more than 1.93 million since the start of the pandemic, according to the country’s Department of Health. More than 13 million people in the NCR went into lockdown on August 6 as the hyper-contagious Delta variant helped drive a resurgence in infections that has strained hospitals [Sunday Examiner, August 8].
The Covid-19 Inter-Agency Task force [IATF] agreed on August 19 to allow more businesses to open their doors from August 21. But a stay-at-home order for non-essential workers and a ban on restaurant dining remains in place. It warned, however, that “over the coming days, the number of our Covid-19 cases may rise further.”
GMA Online reported the Department if Health as saying on August 23 that there were signs of community transmission of the Delta variant in the NCR. “We have seen and observed, especially in NCR and Region 4A [Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon], that this really looks like community transmission. We can no longer see links among cases. We are seeing clustering of cases in these two big regions,” health undersecretary, Maria Rosario Vergeire, told media.
“The IATF lifted ECQ too early. It wasn’t a hard enough lockdown,” one doctor told the Sunday Examiner from Manila on August 23. She added, “Our hospitals are full and people are scrambling again for beds. It feels like we haven’t any gains since March and April because we aren’t taking the pandemic and risk for transmission seriously enough.”
‘The IATF lifted ECQ too early. It wasn’t a hard enough lockdown,’ one doctor told the Sunday Examiner from Manila on August 23. She added, ‘Our hospitals are full and people are scrambling again for beds. It feels like we haven’t any gains since March and April because we aren’t taking the pandemic and risk for transmission seriously enough’
Citing official data, UCAN reported that hospitals in the capital are under growing pressure, with 74 per cent of intensive care beds and 70 per cent of ward beds allocated for Covid-19 cases occupied.
Presidential spokesperson, Harry Roque, said in a statement on August 5 that half of the targeted population of the NCR was expected to be fully vaccinated by the fourth week of August.
According to the Inquirer.net, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chief, Benhur Abalos, said on August 23 that more than 4.2 million people are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in the NCR—43.5 per cent of the region’s population. “I think by the end of the month, easily we could reach 50 per cent,” Abalos declared.
She further told the Sunday Examiner: “It’s really upsetting. We [healthcare workers] are so tired and can’t see how this cycle will end.”
However, the doctor, recalling the experience of contracting Covid-19 herself and losing friends and loved ones—including her father—to the illness, told the Sunday Examiner: “You don’t want Covid to happen to you. The physical toll, anxiety and expenses are not something you want to experience yourselves. Please act like it’s ECQ indefinitely.”
She stressed, “Make decisions for what’s good for you and your family, regardless of what our government mandates.”
She further told the Sunday Examiner: “It’s really upsetting. We [healthcare workers] are so tired and can’t see how this cycle will end.”
Meanwhile, CBCPNews reported that Archbishop Jose Cabantan of Cagayan de Oro, in an August 23, statement, urged people to “not be misled by erroneous fears or deceived by the latest misinformation in social media … may we confidently follow the correct medical and ethical advice.”
He said, “We pray that through vaccination, we can begin to curb the scourge of the pandemic.”
The archbishop said, “Some with comorbidities and following the advice of their doctors may not avail of vaccination. To these, and those who for reasons of conscience do not wish to be vaccinated, they must all still do their utmost to avoid becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent.”
Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, as well as business interests, has insisted on multiple occasions that the country could not afford more lockdowns, after Covid-19 measures shattered the economy and threw millions out of work.
On August 19, Reuters reported that the Philippines had fully vaccinated nearly 13 million people, or 11.7 per cent the population.
