DOH: Call to lock down capital over COVID-19 cases premature

MANILA, Philippines — While President Rodrigo Durerte has declared a state of public health emergency due to the local transmission of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Department of Health believes it is premature to lock down Metro Manila as a precautionary measure against the disease.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda has called for a weeklong lockdown of Metro Manila to contain the spread of COVID-19, saying the government should be ready to do everything to avoid the spread of the illness.

Salceda also proposed the suspension of work and classes in the National Capital Region, the cancellation of bus trips and domestic flights, and the closure of the North Luzon Expressway, South Luzon Expressway, and railways.

The lawmaker made the proposal after the DOH reported that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines has risen to ten and some mayors in Metro Manila and nearby areas announced the suspension of classes.

'No evidence of sustained community transmission yet'

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said there has to be evidence proving that the local transmission of COVID-19 is continuous.

"It might be premature to do it at this point. So we will have to wait until evidence of sustained community transmission is presented. That will trigger the community lockdown or community quarantine, which one of the interventions as reflected in our protocol," Duque said at a press briefing in Malacañang on Monday.

"These are some of the options being considered. But it might be premature at this point. However, let me just reiterate, that we have to respect the local chief executives' decision to suspend classes and that must be followed by all concerned," he added.

Aside from implementing a community quarantine or lockdown, other options being studied by the government are suspension of classes and work, strengthening the preparedness measures of unaffected regions, and tapping the military and the police to assist in the efforts of local governments and health officials in affected communities.

Whole-of-government response

The local transmission of COVID-19 has prompted the health department to recommend to President Duterte the declaration of a state of public health emergency throughout the Philippines.

The declaration is contained in Proclamation No. 922 signed by Duterte last Sunday but released to the media only Monday.

Republic Act No. 11332 defines a public health emergency as the occurrence of an imminent threat of an illness or health condition which, among other possible effects, could pose a high probability of a large number of deaths in the affected population and widespread exposure to an infectious or toxic agent.

The Health secretary has the authority to declare epidemics of national or international concerns except when the same threatens national security.

In the proclamation, Duterte said the outbreak of COVID-19 constitutes an emergency that threatens national security and requires a whole-of-government response.

"All government agencies and LGUs (local government units) are hereby enjoined to render full assistance and cooperation and mobilize the necessary resources to undertake critical, urgent, and appropriate response and measures in a timely manner to curtail and eliminate the COVID-19 threat," the proclamation read.

Duterte also urged all citizens,  tourists, and establishment owners to "act within the bounds of the law" and to comply with the lawful directives and advisories to be issued by agencies.

Duque said the declaration would enable local government to access funds they can use for their preparatory and response activities. He said the declaration would also ease and streamline procurement processes to avoid consuming inordinate amounts of time in getting materials for response efforts.

The declaration, the health chief added, would also require all hospitals to report to the DOH the findings of their intensified surveillance of influenza-like and respiratory illnesses; the conduct of mandatory quarantine; and the implementation of travel restrictions; and allow the DOH and trade department to impose a prize freeze on crucial items.

Harmonized reporting of updates

Duque also cited the need for the national and local governments to consolidate the reports they are relaying to the public to avoid confusion.

He said all information should come from the DOH because the agency has access to the reports about COVID-19 patients.

"We have to review again our reporting protocols and see how we can aligh them with the LGU's reporting protocols. We will harmonize them so that the people won't think that the reports of the LGUs are different from the ones reported by the DOH earlier," Duque said.  

"So we will just harmonize, we will do the review and alignment," he added.

In a related development, the Presidential Communications and Operations Office and the Kapisanan ng mga Broadkaster ng Pilipinas have agreed to work together to intensify information dissemination on COVID-19.

The KBP agreed to air the government's information commercials on the disease so the public can undertake preventive measures against the disease.  

Lower risk during summer?

The World health Organization, meanwhile, said there is no assurance that the virus that causes COVID-19 would disappear during summer.

"We don't believe that this virus will disappear like the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus with the increase in ambient temperatures. What we have seen more recently is not supportive of that. We are seeing continuing transmission in very tropical countries like Singapore, Malaysia. And so, the evidence we have at this point of that is not supportive," WHO representative in the Philippines Rabindra Abeyasinghe said at a press briefing in Malacañang.

"But having said that, certainly, how long the virus survives in warmer countries with high humidity is much less than in cold, low humid circumstances. So this could work in favor of lower levels of transmissions but there are other factors such as overcrowding which could work negatively and contribute to increase transmission," he added.

Duque said he has read medical journal articles stating that the virus that causes COVID-19 is difficult to cure when the temperature is low.

"If that is true, then we should rejoice that summer is just around the corner. It will mean more sweats, more perspiration, but we don't mind. The trade-off is well worth it," the health chief said.

Testing kits from China

Duque also confirmed that the Philippines would be acquiring testing kits from China, where the COVID-19 originated.

"I just sent a text message to my staff to call up the Chinese Ambassador so that I will be able to personally request in the behalf of the Philippine government as many as testing kits they can provide us," Duque said.

"This would be very good, provided that there's going to be the WHO experts through its emergency use list that will validate the effectiveness of such a testing kit," he added.

Duque noted that it is important to ensure that the results that would come out from the testing kits are accurate.

"It's going to be scary if you have false negatives. You say a person is negative but he ends up being positive. And then, you know, you let them go, thinking they're okay. So we have to be very very cautious about this," Duque said.