Mass testing pushed to revive Philippine economy

MANILA, Philippines, July 20 ------ Allies of President Duterte in the House of Representatives have called on Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to launch mass testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to resuscitate the country’s battered economy. “There should be a calibrated balance between health and economic concerns. In the absence of a cure and vaccine, mass testing is the only qualified undertaking that can assuage the work area and other business entities,” Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor said over the weekend.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, who chairs the House committee on dangerous drugs, recalled Duque’s “costly blunders” that he reckoned were committed “from Day One when he said let’s not ban flights coming from China, specifically Wuhan and Hubei province.” “And because of these blunders by no less than the secretary, it has eroded the confidence and credibility of the people in the Department of Health (DOH),” Barbers added. “We should intensify mass testing, implement test, trace and treat. And big corporations should do this on their own employees and maybe their families too,” he added.

Former health secretary and incumbent Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin made a similar proposal. “The government should focus on mass testing,” Garin said, but cautioned against hiring contact-tracers at this stage because it may just be a waste of time and precious government resources. “Contact-tracing using hired personnel would have been better during the lockdown, but at this point when we have partially and others have fully opened, contact-tracing without technology is almost impossible,” she added.

Garin belongs to the House minority bloc, though, and is deputy minority leader. The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and the DOH should raise minimum health standards for the public as the government tries to ease restrictions because a continuous lockdown may further worsen the pandemic’s economic impact.

“With higher standards, there must be stricter enforcement and monitoring. All public restrooms must have both soap and water for handwashing because handwashing with just water does not kill COVID-19,” Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera said. “For example, there must be more handwashing stations, especially at transport terminals and stations because the few squirts of ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol are really not enough,” Herrera added. She noted that there should be higher face mask standards in office buildings, condominium towers and workplaces because these are enclosed spaces where physical distancing can be tricky.

“For public transport vehicles like transport network vehicle service cars and vans, minibuses and modern jeepneys, all kinds of buses and all rail transport, windows must be open to ensure circulation of fresh air. Instead of using aircon as cooling devices, fans must be installed,” the lawmaker said. “In elevators, physical distancing is a challenge because of the small enclosed space. Having two or three persons at any time in an elevator is doable, but having four persons in the elevator would be testing the one-meter minimum distance,” she added.

Source: philstar.com