By Argyll Geducos and Analou De Vera

President Duterte has agreed to declare a State of Public Health Emergency after considering all critical factors regarding the resurgence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country and the confirmation of its local transmission.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo and Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go announced this Saturday after Health Secretary Francisco Duque III raised the health alert level to “Code Red, Sublevel 1” on Saturday and recommended the declaration of a State of Public Health Emergency to the President following the confirmation of the local transmission of the disease.

“The said proposal has been raised to the attention of the President who has agreed to issue such declaration after considering all critical factors with the aim of safeguarding the health of the Filipino public,” Panelo said Saturday afternoon.

Go, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, had likewise recommended the declaration of a State of Public Health Emergency.

READ MORE: Gov’t should stay a step ahead in addressing COVID-19 crisis – Go

Duque said raising the alert level to Code Red “is a preemptive call to ensure that national and local governments and public and private health care providers can prepare for possible increase in suspected and confirmed cases.”

“At this stage of localized transmission, intensified contact tracing and home quarantine of close contacts of confirmed cases, improved hospital preparedness, enhanced Severe Acute Respiratory Illness surveillance, and activation of other laboratories outside of RITM to increase capacity to diagnose are now being implemented,” he said.

Duque, in a press conference Saturday, said the first local transmission was made official after the Bureau of Immigration confirmed that the fifth COVID-19 case in the country – the 62-year-old man who regularly goes to a Muslim prayer hall in Greenhills, San Juan – had no recent travel history to any of the countries with cases of COVID-19.

The DOH chief also revealed that the 62-year-old patient’s 59-year-old wife was also tested positive for the disease, making her the 6th confirmed case of COVID-19 in the country. She first manifested cough and was admitted at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) on March 5.

RITM Director Dr. Celia Carlos reported the 59-year-old woman as well as the country’s 4th confirmed case of COVID-19 – a 48-year-old Filipino lawyer – are both in stable condition. Both have “mild respiratory symptoms.”

However, the 62-year-old man is in a “guarded condition,” Carlos said without elaborating.

“He still has severe pneumonia plus other medical problems like diabetes and hypertension – and the recently identified other medical problem which is acute kidney injury which may be due to multiple factors present in the patient,” Carlos added.

State of Public Health Emergency

Duque said that despite having “only two cases constituting localized transmission,” they recommended to the Office of the President the declaration of a State of Public Health Emergency.

“This will facilitate mobilization of resources, ease processes, including procurement of critical logistics and supplies, and intensifying reporting,” said Duque.

The DOH said that they are already improving the testing capacity of subnational laboratories in the country.

“DOH is determined to expand our testing capacity for COVID-19 to immediately ascertain that cases are identified and dealt with. We are studying these proposals to ensure that they are accurate and safe for the public’s use,” said Duque.

“Enhanced testing capacity is a prerequisite to prevention and containment, hence DOH is placing expansion of testing centers as its topmost priority,” he added.

Access to funding

Go said that the declaration of a State of Public Health Emergency facilitates immediate access to funding to respond to the issue, particularly for the LGUs. “Under Republic Act (RA) 10121, such declaration allows the LGUs to utilize their local disaster risk reduction management funds,” he said.

“The declaration eases processes on procurement, mandatory reporting, mandatory quarantine and travel restrictions, among others,” Go added.

If the President pushes through with the declaration, it will also serve as basis for possible price freeze under RA 7581 or the Price Act, the senator said.

Go also urged all citizens, residents, tourists and establishment owners to act within the bounds of the law and to comply with the lawful directives and advisories to be issued to prevent further spread of COVID-19.

He added that he will also recommend to the President the creation of a crisis committee through an expansion of the membership of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to include other instrumentalities of the government, including LGUs, to fight the possible disease spread more effectively.

“We need a whole-of-society and proactive approach in preventing further spread of the virus,” Go said citing that this is consistent with DOH’s pronouncement raising the alert level to Code Red, sub-level 1.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said that President Duterte has already instructed all relevant agencies to be absolutely transparent to the public.

In a statement Saturday morning, Panelo said the President recognizes that the people have every right to be informed about the situation.

“At the very outset of the surge of news reports concerning COVID-19, the President has categorically mandated relevant instrumentalities of the government to be absolutely transparent to the Filipino people as regards this health issue, aware that we have the right to be informed of the conditions surrounding us,” he said.

Contact tracing

Duque said the DOH is currently “exhausting all its efforts to identify others who may have come in contact with the confirmed cases to ensure that this localized transmission does not progress to community spread.”

World Health Organization Country Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said health authorities are now trying to define the “parameters” of the local transmission of COVID-19 in the country.

“What we have now is localized transmission and what the DOH is trying to do is to define the parameters by means [of] contacting the close contacts – testing them during the case investigations to define what the parameters of these clusters are,” he said.

“We want to clearly define who is affected – is there a transmission beyond these two cases that we have confirmed – we need to identify who could be at risk,” he added.

Abeyasinghe emphasized that the public should be conscious that anybody in Metro Manila or any parts of the country who has a respiratory tract infection does not signify that they are having the coronavirus disease.

“The mere fact that you have respiratory tract infection does not mean that you need to be tested for COVID-19 unless you have been in close contact with these cases,” he said.

“We urge you to still be rational and not demand that every single respiratory tract infection that anybody contracts needs to be checked for COVID-19 – that is not a possibility for any country. Every country practices contact tracing and if you have suspected exposure or travel history –only those people are tested. You cannot test everybody. We have to be realistic about the test,” said Abeyasinghe.

Cainta, Taguig cases

Meanwhile, Cainta, Rizal Mayor Johnielle Keith Nieto said health authorities are closely monitoring Filinvest East Subdivision following the confirmation by the homeowners association that one of their neighbors is COVID-19 positive.

Nieto, in his text message to this reporter, said health measures are in place since Friday night to ensure that health protocols are being followed in relation to the incident that involves a resident who has been tested positive for COVID-19.

The mayor did not describe the concerned COVID-19 patient, but a Facebook post now circulating states that the virus case in Cainta regularly visits a mosque in Greenhills.

Nieto said vitamin C, face masks, and sanitizers have been distributed by the local government to the homeowners of the Filinvest East Subdivision as part of initial sanitary measures implemented by the Cainta Municipal government.

The Taguig City government, likewise, confirmed on Saturday that one of the two new COVID-19 cases announced by the DOH last Friday is an employee of Deloitte Philippines, which has offices at the Net Lima Plaza in Bonifacio Global City.

In a statement, the local government said the employee is in stable condition after he was admitted at the RITM on March 5.

The employee initially sought medical consultation on March 4, and was put under the surveillance by the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CEDSU).

The local government is still monitoring the status of the employee, while the CEDSU, as well as city officials, have been in close coordination with the concerned property managers.

“Contact tracing and proper management are ongoing,” the statement read. (With reports from Mario B. Casayuran, Nel B. Andrade, and Dhel Nazario)

READ MORE: Taguig City confirms BGC employee was one of two new COVID-19 cases

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