By Gemi Formaran March 21, 2020 Quezon Rep. Angelina 'Helen' Tan LUCENA CITY - Patients under investigation (PUIs) for cor...
March 21, 2020
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| Quezon Rep. Angelina 'Helen' Tan |
LUCENA CITY - Patients under investigation (PUIs) for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have no reason to panic as long as they take necessary precautionary measures. Thus assured Quezon Rep. Angelina 'Helen' Tan, a doctor of medicine, who chairs the Committee on Health in the House of Representatives.
Tan said as long as the PUIs are following the instructions of health officials religiously, they don’t have to worry about their safety.
As to the basic problems being faced by the frontline health workers as a result of President Rodrigo Duterte's enforcement of Enhanced Community Quarantine, Tan said she is finding ways to address them. Despite taking all the risks just to combat the prevailing crisis, Tan said the health workers, especially those in the field, have their different problems.
The Luzon-wide quarantine could spare the Philippine economy from entering into a possible recession, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said on Sunday.
With the suspension of public transport, she said health workers are among those who are badly affected.
"Many of them claim that authorities manning checkpoints refuse to acknowledge their IDs and refrain them from proceeding to their duties," said Tan.
The lawmaker said she immediately coordinated with concerned officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Health, and the police to address the problem, as she urged authorities to provide a special lane if possible, for health workers in order not to hamper the delivery of necessities such as food and medicine.
She said another problem that the workers are facing is the absence of space for them to stay in since they no longer go home after the day's work.
"Since we have national public health emergency and hospitals have no extra rooms or space that can be used by the duty health workers, I'm looking into the possibility that local chief executives can do something so that rooms in apartelles or hotels located near hospitals can be used as temporary quarter," Tan said.
She asked the public to include the health workers in their prayers.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Quezon has one confirmed COVID-19 case and 27 PUIs, including one mortality, according to Provincial Health officer Dr. Grace Santiago.
With the prevailing enhanced community quarantine, Santiago said everyone is now considered persons under monitoring (PUM).
Quezon Gov. Danilo Suarez on Tuesday led a Joint Quezon Provincial Inter-Agency COVID-19 Task Force and Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) meeting at Queen Margarette Hotel to discuss ways to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease.
For six months, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has put the entire Philippines under a state of calamity in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), which reportedly has infected less than 200 people.
Under Proclamation No. 929 signed by President Duterte on March 16, 2020, the Chief Executive ordered all government agencies and local government units (LGUs) to provide complete assistance and cooperation among themselves and mobilize the resources required to remove the danger posed by COVID-19.
All law enforcement agencies are directed to enact steps to ensure peace and order in affected areas, with support from the Philippine Armed Forces (AFP).
The President also ordered the Executive and Health Secretaries and all other Heads of Department to issue guidelines for enforcing the Enhanced Community Quarantine in Luzon which he announced on March 16, 2020.
President Duterte enforced enhanced community quarantine across Luzon to contain COVID-19 after a similar measure enforced at Metro Manila last week failed to curb public activity and urge people to stay home.
The decree by the President allows LGUs to use their Quick Response Fund (QRF)
for disaster preparedness to avoid the contagion and provide essential services to the population affected.
On the recommendation of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), the Government has increased the Code Alert System for COVID-19 to Code Red Sublevel 2.
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