I was asked by my Xavier School Batch 66 Classmates, particularly those residing abroad, to talk on COVID19 in a Zoom Webinar on August 23, 2020 (Sunday, Manila Times).
Here are the topics asked of me to explain and discuss:
1. Present COVID19 situation in the country
2. What to expect in the next few months ....continuous upsurge or flattening of the curve
3. Is our health system coping well with the crisis or overwhelmed?
4. Doc Rey’s personal "telemedicine"consultation with patients
5. Doc Rey's advocacy of assistance to public hospitals in rural areas for the poor and marginalized
6. Lastly, Doc Rey's personal self-quarantine until Feb 2 2021, his reason and analysis
The COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
The first case in the Philippines was identified on January 30, 2020 and involved a 38-year-old Chinese woman from China who was confined at San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila. On February 1, the first death from COVID-19 occurred in a 44-year-old Chinese man also from China. His death also marked the Philippines as the first country outside China to record a confirmed death from the disease. [It is more fun in the Philippines!]
More than 160 health professional organizations submit their proposed plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic to the National Taskforce against COVID-19 (NTF) and the Department of Health (DOH) as the two-week timeout comes to an end today, 18 August 2020.
As a response to the plea of our medical frontliners, President Rodrigo Duterte called for a two-week Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila from Aug. 4 to Aug. 18 and also invited the doctors for a series of meetings with the National Taskforce against COVID-19 (NTF) and other relevant government agencies.
The proposed plan was a result of the series of meetings between the HCWs, private sector, and government bodies to address 7 major issues related to the pandemic: workforce overload; inefficient contact tracing and quarantine; inefficient case finding and isolation; workplace outbreaks; inadequate and unsafe transport options; poor public compliance to safety protocols; and worsening inequalities.
The unified plan developed by HPAAC with business and government leaders focuses on the following:
● Expansion of the One Hospital Command to the One COVID Referral Network
● Enforcement of the policy on workplace safety
● Strengthening the role of science in the decision-making process of government entities through the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC)
● Development and dissemination of unified guidelines on COVID response that can be implemented down to the local level
● Safe, sufficient, and sustainable transport options especially for the poor
● Internet connectivity for all especially those living in disadvantaged areas
● Equitable access to social amelioration programs
● Development of key messages to inspire behavior change
COVID19
YOUNG PEOPLE
EXCERPTS:
Many of these people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are unaware they’re infected, so they unknowingly pass the virus to others, says WHO Western Pacific Regional Director Dr Takeshi Kasai
In the Philippines, health officials earlier said bulk of infections were seen among the working population, as individuals who venture out of their homes for work were among those driving infections in communities. Recent health data showed those in their 20s to 40s account for nearly 72,000 of over 169,000 cases reported as of August 18.
Kasai pointed out young people were more likely to have mild to no symptoms at all despite being infected, posing a challenge in efforts to contain the spread of the virus in communities and guard those most vulnerable to severe forms of COVID-19.
“This increases the risk of spillovers to the most vulnerable – the elderly, the sick people in long-term care, people who live in densely populated urban areas and underserved rural areas,” Kasai said.
The implications of this trend, the WHO said, is that countries, “must redouble efforts to stop the virus from moving into vulnerable communities.”
“After 7 months of the pandemic, we’re starting to see a way to restore health of societies and the economy together. We cannot do one without the other.”
How do you think this all ends?
The innovations in therapeutics will start to cut the death rate, but the true end will come from the spread of natural infections and the vaccine giving us herd immunity. For rich countries, that will be sometime next year, ideally in the first half. We’ll get out of this by the end of 2021.
So we’re going to be OK?
Certainly. We’re lucky this one wasn’t a more fatal disease.
Businessweek interview with Bill Gates.
e ended sars at 3 months, mers at 5 months, zika at 6 montnhs, h5n1 at 9 months..
Sharing...
"PGH SHARES LESSONS LEARNED DURING ONGOING EFFORTS TO PREVENT COVID-19 TRANSMISSION
1. Our COVID-19 operations must be based on science, implemented with calculated precision and evaluated objectively. Nothing can be left to chance
2. The PCR tests are only point-in-time tests. The assurance it provides is brief and only lasts up to the point one was tested. COVID-19 is so efficiently contagious that the only true guarantee that any institution is safe is when our entire community works together to get the lowest infection rates possible. We in PGH and everybody else need to move as ONE with the rest of society.
3. There were two attractive ideas which we did not find helpful, and we have removed them from our routine COVID Operations. These are the Rapid Antibody Tests (RATs) and the routine mass testing of HCWs.
4. Contact tracing is very important. It is also time -sensitive and thus every COVID suspect and confirmed case demands that contact tracing should be initiated at once!
5. The most valuable resource in the COVID crisis are our healthcare workers. We MUST listen to what they are really saying, what they are not saying and what they are trying to say.
CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic is here to stay for a few more months. Let us gather our best practices and continue to learn from each other. We are one with the WHO when it states what we need to get through this pandemic are: SCIENCE, SOLUTIONS and SOLIDARITY. Most of all, if there is one thing we learned from the hard work of the PGH community, from the support of the greater community around us: there is hope. We can do this! We are one with the rest of the Filipino people as we call out as ONE VOICE: Together, we shall fight this fight. Together, we will HEAL as one if we WORK as one! Together, our mantra should be: I am only okay if everybody else is okay!"
ROJoson COVID19 Diary