By Samuel P. Medenilla & Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz
AS the government announced on Tuesday the extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon up to end-April to buy more time for it to employ its “test-and-isolate” tactic against the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19), calls mounted for a modified, area-specific lockdown to mitigate the continuing damage to businesses and jobs.
A leader of the House of Representatives said the extension should be a modified, area-specific lockdown to “reboot certain businesses along with the government’s infrastructure buildup program in order to rejuvenate the economy even before the coronavirus pandemic is over.”
In an online press briefing Tuesday morning, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said President Duterte approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to reset the initial date for the end of the ECQ from April 13, 2020, up to 11:59 pm of April 30, 2020.
Target capacity
Nograles said the extension will help the Department of Health (DOH) achieve its target of raising the country’s number of Covid-related tests to 8,000 to 10,000 per day before the end of the month.
As of Saturday, the DOH said the country’s testing capacity is at 900 to 1,200 per day.
Nograles said the testing capacity is expected to improve to 2,600 to 7,000 per day by April 13, 2020, a day before the scheduled start of the mass testing for Covid-19 to be implemented by the DOH.
For this purpose, the IATF approved the Guidelines for Covid-19 Mass Testing, which Nograles explained will still focus on those with a high risk of being infected by the virus.
Among the people prioritized for testing are those with severe symptoms with history of travel and/or contact; have mild symptoms and vulnerable with history of travel and/or contact with a Covid-19 patient; have mild but not vulnerable with a history of travel and history of contact with a Covid-19 patient; and those who are asymptomatic but with history of travel and history of contact with a Covid-19 patient.
“There should be a reason why you will be tested. It should not just because you wanted to be tested,” Nograles said.
He said the higher testing capacity is crucial in the plan to immediately identify Covid-infected patients and then isolate them in established quarantine facilities to prevent further spreading the disease.
This will go with contact tracing of the people who interacted with the infected person.
Nograles said the current testing capacity of the country is insufficient to effectively implement the said plan if the ECQ is relaxed as scheduled.
Delayed spike
Models presented to them by medical experts, Nograles said, showed the number of cases is expected to surge if the ECQ in Luzon is finally relaxed.
“It is expected to soar since everybody will be allowed to move again. So, what do we need to do? That is to increase our testing capacity,” Nograles said.
As of Monday, the DOH reported 3,660 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country, with 163 deaths and 73 recoveries.
The projected worst-case scenario of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Covid-19 cases in the country could reach 75,000 if the government fails to implement tough measures to contain it.
New normal
Nograles said extending the ECQ will give enough time for the IATF technical working group led by the National Economic and Development Authority to craft guidelines to set the “new normal” wherein social distancing will still be strictly enforced for business operation.
He said the government hopes the measures will allow them to stall the spread of Covid-19 up to 2021, by which time, it is hoped, a vaccine would have been developed.
Selective lockdown
Deputy Speaker for Finance Luis Raymund Villafuerte, a member of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee, said a modified, area-specific lockdown will keep most people at home but it is vital to allow the resumption of certain businesses, especially those in vital sectors like food and health industries, to revive the economy and ensure the steady supply of foodstuff, medicines, health products and protective equipment.
“Certain businesses need to reopen, subject of course to the strict observance of social distancing and hygiene protocols by employers and their employees, in order to somehow revive the domestic economy this early after its sudden stop, following the implementation of personal movement restrictions in Luzon and other parts of the country to stop the quick spread of Covid-19,” he said in a statement.
Also, he said the President’s signature initiative “Build, Build, Build” must be put back on track as infrastructure investments offer the highest multiplier effects, including job generation, on the economy—and could thus stimulate high growth even while the health crisis is still raging across the globe.
“The President’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ is an engine of growth and should thus be put back on track during the extended ECQ period. The revival and acceleration of infrastructure investments are guaranteed to re-ignite economic activity and create jobs, especially for a lot of Filipino workers dependent on the ‘no-work, no-pay’ setup who have lost their means of livelihood when the domestic economy ground to a halt last month,” he added.
Meanwhile, Villafuerte said that if more funds are needed for social amelioration or to beef up the protection and resources of our frontline health-care workers in fighting the pandemic, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) should consider realigning funds for nonessential items in the 2020 General Appropriations Act (GAA) to this purpose.
He proposed anew to the DBM to take “a long hard look” at adjusting 2020 GAA items for nonessential expenditures, so would-be savings can augment public funds for the protracted battle against Covid-19.
Villafuerte said that “forced savings in nonessential spending such as those on foreign travel or the purchase of brand-new official vehicles plus office supplies and equipment should go to a pool that the national government could use to expand and extend its programs to cushion the economic fallout from the pandemic and to better equip the country’s health workers in saving lives and treating infected Filipinos.”
He said the DBM should also look at realigning 2020 allocations for, among others, the Armed Forces modernization program, whose procurements could be made later after the pandemic; the budget for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that has been postponed to next year; and the outlays for tourism expos and investment roadshows abroad, as the internal travel and business communities are obviously in no mood to entertain such activities at this time amid the global health crisis.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes