Time to plan and prepare for immunization, 2

(Continued from Sept. 16, 2020 issue)

FOLLOWING the strict health protocols in August, the situation improved moderately and provided hospitals more space to handle new cases. Hopefully, the flattening of the curve would result in the decrease in critical care utilization rate for virus patients from the current 46 percent to a manageable 30 percent and below.

What made up for the shortage of hospital beds is the construction of quarantine facilities all over the country. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) led by Secretary Mark Villar has built and continues to set up more quarantine facilities to support the government’s efforts in containing the virus spread.

The DPWH Task Force to Facilitate Augmentation of National and Local Health Facilities is in charge of constructing health system facilities to decongest hospitals. The department is building 602 Covid-19 facilities with a total capacity of 23,000 beds nationwide. Of the total, 340 have been completed as of the first week of September, while another 262 are expected to be finished within the next two months.

The use of face shields on top of facemasks, meanwhile, may have helped reduce the transmission rate. It is one effective protocol that companies and local government units may find useful, instead of a lockdown, at least until a vaccine becomes available.

Over 100 COVID-19 vaccines are in development this year, and the World Health Organization expects that two billion doses of the vaccine will be made available by 2021. President Duterte prefers a less expensive vaccine once it becomes available. The Philippines is already in talks with Gamaleya Institute of Russia for the possible reproduction of Sputnik V vaccine.

Among the companies that are in the advance stage of clinical trials for their vaccine candidates are Moderna Therapeutics and Pfizer of the US, Sinovac of China and CSL Limited of Australia. “Whoever makes it first and gives it to us cheap, that’s where we’ll go. They know that we don’t have enough money. If it’s too expensive, we will go for the less expensive ones,” President Duterte was quoted as saying earlier.

As we begin to see a flattening of COVID-19 curve and prepare for a massive immunization program next year, we should also look at healing our economy to preserve jobs and prevent more people from falling below the poverty threshold.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) noted that prior to the health crisis, the Philippines was in a position to become an upper middle-income country in 2020, supported by low inflation and strong fiscal position, as recognized by international credit rating agencies, which gave us investment-grade credit scores of BBB+ to A-.

With the easing of quarantine restrictions in June, the economy began to see a gradual recovery. Acting NEDA Director-General Kendrick Chua said based on what took place in the last six months, the lower quarantine restriction actually opened more sectors of the economy and helped bring back jobs.

The level of quarantine restrictions clearly has a significant impact on the economy. I believe that while we should remain on our toes against the spread of COVID-19, we should keep the economy operational and allow Filipinos to keep their jobs and provide for their families. We should now focus on rebuilding the economy while keeping our families protected.

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This piece first came out in Business Mirror on Sept. 15, 2020 under the column “The Entrepreneur.” For comments/feedback e-mail to: mbv.secretariat@gmail.com or visitwww.mannyvillar.com.ph./PN