IT WAS supposed to end at midnight today – the classification from the IATF which placed “I Am Iloilo City” under Modified Enhance Community Quarantine” or MECQ. But from the looks of it, this MECQ might just have to be extended. COVID-19 positive cases are still going up and Thursday last week the city had a record-high of 116 additional positive cases.
“I Am Iloilo City” mayor Geronimo has already sent a request to IATF to extend the MECQ status of the city for another 15 days, from June 1 to June 15, so we might wake up tomorrow morning still under MECQ or not just yet. But if the situation does not improve and the positive cases still go up, then expect the inevitable.
What is glaring is that most if not majority of the COVID-19 positive cases are caused by local transmission, meaning the basic medical protocols – wearing of facemask properly, of course covering the mouth and nose and not the chin; social distancing, and washing the hands / disinfecting them with alcohol – are simply not followed. What is worst is that most natives of “I Am Iloilo City” do not take these protocols seriously. They just go through the motions of pretending to comply.
We don’t have to look far. It seems the super spreader is in Iloilo City Hall. As of Friday last week there were 92 – probably more by now – COVID-19 positive employees all because of local transmission. The scary thing is these 92-plus positive employees are all spread all over the city, spreading local transmission to their families and neighbors. It does seem that “compliance” of COVID-19 protocols is an alien word to these folks.
Mayor Geronimo said not to post the results of your RT-PCR test or “swab test” on social media as it can be copied and altered for the obvious ulterior motives. And comes the “resigned compliance team head” posting his test results in social media, particularly on his “story” on Facebook.
I am quite certain that “I Am Iloilo City” Hall has enough, perhaps more than enough, COVID-19 protocols in place and are strictly enforced within the building premises and offices. But the thing is what happens when these city hall employees go home; are they still following the protocols or the protocols just fly out the window i.e. when the cat is away the mouse will play.
I strongly suspect that is the case. Just because he/she is your neighbor it does not mean he/she can’t infect you.
The most basic protocol coming from your office/workplace or the mall is to assume that you’re contaminated by the time you get home, so before entering your house and getting in contact with your family, you have to remove all your clothes, disinfect your shoes, bag, phone, glasses etc. throw away your used face mask and take a shower and change into fresh clothes.
I doubt if those city hall employees infected with COVID-19 even bother to do or even has heard of those basic protocols.
And let’s talk about the vaccine. More than four million are already vaccinated as of today and we are No. 2 in vaccines rollouts in ASEAN. The vaccine program is working. Meanwhile the so-called opposition are also working double-time to derail it by discrediting vaccines, creating vaccine hesitancy just so they can blame Duterte, that’s how evil they are.
Excerpts from an article on www.gavi.org/vaccineswork:
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been recommended by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) for use in all adults, including people older than 65 years. SAGE, which advises the WHO on its global policies and strategies for vaccines, has said that the vaccine should be given in two doses, eight to 12 weeks apart.
Prior to this recommendation, the vaccine had been shown to be effective and had been through stringent regulatory approvals.
This SAGE recommendation comes as the COVAX facility has started shipping doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine worldwide to low- and middle-income countries. COVAX, coordinated by Gavi, WHO and CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), was set up to ensure that everyone around the globe has equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Since the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored in ordinary refrigerators at 2 to 8°C (unlike Pfizer and Moderna’s RNA vaccines that need to be kept at sub-zero temperatures) this makes it especially important in the fight against COVID-19 in countries which lack access to ultra-cold chain refrigeration or reliable electricity supplies.
The vaccine has already received an Emergency Use Listing from the WHO, which means COVAX begun rolling it out.
The WHO recommends that priority be given to health workers at high risk of exposure and people aged 65 or older, followed by people with underlying comorbidities such as respiratory disease or diabetes.
Although people can take the vaccine if they have already had COVID-19, the SAGE experts say that they could defer vaccination for up to six months from the time of infection, to ensure supplies for others who may need the vaccine more urgently.
Vaccination can be given to pregnant or breastfeeding women too, especially if the benefit of vaccinating a pregnant woman outweighs the potential vaccine risks (e.g. if the pregnant woman is a health worker or has co-morbidities). Only people with a history of severe allergic reaction to a component of the vaccine should not take it, nor should children.
It is critical to remember, says Dr Katherine O’Brien, Director of WHO’s Department of Immunization, that even if the vaccines are not as effective at stopping the new variants entirely, the vaccines are likely to still be helpful at stopping severe disease and death in the most vulnerable people. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com)/PN)
