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THE CLOCK IS TICKING. President Rodrigo Duterte and his advisers meet with health policy experts in the post-April 30 response to the new coronavirus pandemic. Picture of Malacañang
MANILA, Philippines – Ten days before the scheduled end of the Luzon blockade, President Rodrigo Duterte met with health and disaster response experts as he and his advisers decide their next steps to address the new coronavirus pandemic.
The meeting took place on Monday, April 21 at the Malacañang Golf Club. Also present at the meeting were Cabinet officials who are members of the Inter-Agency Working Group (IATF) on Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The President did not make a final decision on closure during the meeting. Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who is also an IATF spokesperson, said at a virtual press conference on Tuesday, April 21, that the chief executive still had enough time to make a final decision before the April 30 shutdown.
The group of experts present at Monday’s meeting included former health secretaries, leaders of medical groups or associations, advocates of health reform, and professors of medical schools. (WATCH: Rappler Talk: former DOH chief Esperanza Cabral in the race against time)
One of them, Mahar Lagmay, is a disaster response expert who led Project NOAH, a disaster management and response program, during the Aquino administration.
The invited human resources, all the doctors, are the following:
- Janette Garin – Former Secretary of Health
- Esperanza Cabral – former secretary of health
- Jaime Galvez Tan – former secretary of health; President of the Futuros de Salud Foundation; former vice chancellor for research at the University of the Philippines, Manila; former executive director of the Philippine National Institutes of Health
- Susan Mercado, Public Health Policy Expert and Duterte Special Envoy for Global Health Initiatives
- Anthony Leachon – advocate for health reform
- Anna Lisa Ong-Lim – President of the Philippine Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Marissa Alejandria – President of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
- Katherine Ann Reyes – Professor of Health Policy and Administration at the University of the Philippines Manila
- Mahar Lagmay – executive director of the UP Resilience Institute
President Duterte now meets with health experts and cabinet members where the possible extension of the Metro Manila blockade is one of the issues.
Picture of Malacañang @rapplerdotcom pic.twitter.com/gkDP99ZUgZ
– Pia Ranada (@piaranada) April 20, 2020
Former health secretary Enrique Ona Jr participated in the meeting through a video call, through which he shared his thoughts on the mass tests, according to Leachon.
Another former chief of health, Manuel Dayrit, was also recommended to be invited to the meeting, but was not present. (WATCH: Rappler Talk: Former DOH chief Manuel Dayrit on containment outbreaks)
The meeting began with a presentation by the Acting Secretary for Socioeconomic Planning, Karl Chua, and the Secretary of Health, Francisco Duque III, on the current situation and the options after April 30, the last day of the closure of the entire Luzon or “quarantine Community Improvement “.
The experts were then asked to evaluate these scenarios and make their own recommendations.
What were the positions of the health experts? Experts and government officials sought a balance between the need to continue social distancing measures and reduce damage to the economy.
Health reform advocate Anthony Leachon is in favor of an improved “modified” community quarantine in Metro Manila from May 1-15, he told Rappler.
He also agreed to a “continued reopening of the economy in Luzon” in the first two weeks of May.
A modified community quarantine is among the options the IATF is considering, Nograles said Tuesday.
He added that allowing the resumption of the operations of the industries in which social distancing can be imposed is also another scenario under study.
Meanwhile, Lagmay shared the evaluation of the UP COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team. They found that the Luzon quarantine was a “relative success,” according to their policy document posted on the UP website.
The blockade imposed since March 15 in Metro Manila and March 17 for all of Luzon seemed to slow down the increase in reported positive cases.
“The time series analysis shows that it now takes a little longer to double the number of confirmed cases. What took 3 days to double the total number of cases now takes around 6 days,” says its second policy note.
But experts also emphasized the need to improve government data on coronavirus cases through more aggressive testing and more granular reporting of cases at the local government level. – Rappler.com
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