By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
A day after the country logged its biggest number of new COVID-19 cases at 22,366, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the dominant strain of the virus in the Philippines is now the Delta variant. Data from the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed that seven out of 10 samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center recently turned out to be the hyper contagious Delta variant.
The transmission rate has accelerated a lot faster than earlier projections made by the DOH and other expert groups. So, again, pandemic response policymakers are confronted with how to arrest the spread of the virus.
In the coming days, the infection numbers are bound to go higher while the government’s problem-solving options continue to run in circles. Lockdowns have always been the IATF’s only weapon against this. But even this vaunted defense mechanism is becoming less effective.
While the rollout of vaccines has picked up considerably with the arrival of supply, Dr. Tony Leachon, a former consultant of the IATF, reiterates failure in two critical areas of battling the pandemic – periodic testing and contact tracing.
I believe his observations are accurate as contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong himself admitted misgivings, and the country’s StaySafe.ph app also proved unsuccessful. As for testing czar Vince Dizon, I see him more visible in welcoming vaccine shipments at the airport than working to increase testing and moving to make it free as it is in other countries.
COVID-19 has proved to be one step ahead with a new mutation of the virus in South Africa spreading the C.1.2 variant in seven countries. Again, it appears – although prematurely, due to lack of data – to be more contagious and seemingly able to slip existing vaccines.
There’s hope in vaccine makers currently working on second-generation anti-COVID jabs that may be used as boosters to block the new variants. Hopefully, the DOH’s proposed P40-billion fund to purchase booster shots in next year’s budget passes a doubting Congress now busy with probing fund mismanagement sins of the past.
If government should claim to have this pandemic under control, it has to focus on applying best practices seen in other parts of the world. As Dr. Leachon pointed out, the winning solution revolves around vaccination, testing, contact-tracing, social protocols, border controls, capacitating hospitals, and, yes, quarantine status and facilities.
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