ONE YEAR into the lockdown, it is dispiriting that number of COVID-19 cases continue to spike instead of ebbing. On Monday, March 15, the country recorded 5,404 new coronavirus cases, as its cumulative count reached 626,893.
One insight we learned last year was that local government units (LGUs) played a critical role in shielding their communities from the adverse impacts of the pandemic. Thus it is not surprising that there calls for the Department of Health (DOH) to further empower local governments so they can level-up in addressing the challenges of controlling the spread of the disease.
Local governments know what’s happening on the ground, but they need the support. We’ve been saying this for the longest time: DOH has to enable LGUs rather than keep the power to themselves. DOH has to enable and provide and designate and deputize and give powers to the locals so that they can really confront this challenge.
Aside from quarantining, local governments must be empowered to do mass testing, tracing, isolation, and vaccination. For as long as herd immunity is not achieved, we need testing. This is the backbone of the fight against COVID-19 while vaccine rollout is still not on full blast.
Local governments need national government support to intensify mass testing, contact-tracing, isolation, and vaccination activities to control the spread of the virus. These measures should be consistently implemented while waiting for the general population to be vaccinated.
LGUs have seen in the past that they are better equipped than the national government in addressing immediately and quickly the challenges in their localities. So, if they believe that a quarantine is crucial, then we should be able to consider that seriously. But we have to give them the necessary tools and the necessary resources.
