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The World Bank has provided a $ 600 million loan to the Philippines aimed at easing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on poor families.
The Washington-based multilateral lender said in a statement Thursday that the money would help the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) implement the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P) and the Rapid, Innovative and Responsive Service Transformation (First ) for beneficiaries. .
The 4Ps provide cash payments to approximately 4.3 million poor households to ensure that children remain healthy and in school, and to discourage child labor.
“These efforts are critical to ensuring their children can stay in school and stay healthy while the country takes steps to control this pandemic,” Ndiamé Diop, World Bank country director for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand said in a statement. .
The new loan will also finance the government’s push to use digital platforms to streamline processes in the delivery of social protection.
“In these difficult times, cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable indirectly support local economies and boost prospects for recovery,” Diop said.
The government has stepped up its efforts to secure funding for its response to the coronavirus, particularly for marginalized sectors.
In a related development, civil society groups called on authorities to treat “disadvantaged and vulnerable” sectors with “respect, dignity, kindness and compassion” when enforcing quarantine procedures.
The groups, led by the Covid-19 Action Network and the Health Professionals Alliance Against Covid-19, urged the government to investigate the well-being of Covid patients who will be transferred to treatment centers, and those who may be isolated at home. be able to do it.
They are also concerned that some patients may lie about their symptoms to escape possible transfer to a temporary treatment and monitoring center.
The Department of Health (DoH) assured that the position of the Inter-institutional Working Group on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on home quarantine will give priority to marginalized sectors.
The Undersecretary of Health, María Rosario Vergeire, said that the IATF-EID decision was based on what the National Covid-19 Working Group saw on the ground regarding home quarantine protocols that are applied in different areas.
“Many of those who are in home quarantine, the environment is not suitable for them to go to home quarantine (many of those who undergo home quarantine had their inappropriate environments),” Vergeire said.
He added that home quarantine can be allowed if the facilities are full.
On Wednesday, the country registered 2,426 new Covid cases, bringing the total to 311,694 cases.
Recoveries of the virus stood at 253,488 and deaths at 5,504.
Meanwhile, the president of the Metro Manila Council said that the National Capital Region may switch to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) in November if Covid-19 cases continue to decline.
“With the grace of God, this coming November we can be MGCQ with the permission of our dear president (With the grace of God, we will be under MGCQ next November, with the permission of our president)”, said the mayor of the city of Paranaque and president of MMC, Edwin. Olivarez said in a televised briefing.
UP Octa Research recently said the country could have as many as 410,000 cases by the end of October.
Despite the grim milestone, the coronavirus situation is improving, according to the group.
The reproduction rate, also known as R-zero, in Metro Manila is 0.73, compared to 0.82 for the entire country.
A reproduction rate of less than “1” indicates that each existing infected person transmits the virus to less than one person.
Meanwhile, a brand of rapid coronavirus antigen test kit from South Korea that was included in the 120 million test kits to be donated by WHO to low- and middle-income countries failed the testing laboratory’s sensitivity test. national of the country, according to the DoH.
The SD Biosensor Rapid Antigen Test Kit, which will be donated by WHO through funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been found to have achieved a sensitivity of 71 percent, or the measure of how a test correctly identifies a positive result for people who have the condition being tested.
Undersecretary Vergeire said rapid antigen test kits must have at least 80 percent sensitivity and 97 percent specificity, or the measure of how a test correctly identified those negatives.
WITH JOHN ERIC MENDOZA
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