THE LIFTING of the extended enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) should have corresponding intensified medical solutions, otherwise the two-month lockdown would have been for nothing.
Surely, some mine weeks into the enhanced community quarantine, the government already has a systematic and comprehensive medical plan to be able to adequately address the COVID-19 pandemic? People hope so.
Community quarantines alone will not stop the spread of COVID-19. It should be paired with genuine and fast mass testing, systematic contact tracing and sufficient isolation and quarantine facilities so that communities can adequately contain the virus.
If the government continues its snail-paced testing, contact tracing, inadequate isolation and quarantine facilities, the nine weeks of ECQ would have been for nothing while prematurely lifting the ECQ without these vital measures in place, might only make things worse.
According to Ateneo Math professor Felix Muga, the Philippines still has yet to flatten the curve and the reproduction rate of COVID-19 is still above one, indicating that we still have not been able to contain the virus.
The Department of Health still has backlogs in testing suspected cases, the release of test results and rapid contact tracing. Without these medical solutions, cases of COVID-19 will continue to rise in our country. Our healthcare workers continue to demand for medical solutions.
Countries that have been able to reopen their cities ensured that they have a systematic medical plan in place so that they can easily and quickly contain the virus and prevent an outbreak. What about the Philippines?
