Recalibrating COVID-19 response strategies
Our country which is going into five months of community quarantine, one of the longest lockdowns in the world, but has little to show in mitigating the spread of the Covid-19 infection.
Medical societies have called for a time-out since health frontliners in the epicenter of the disease are exhausted with the continuing surge in the number of patients who troop to hospitals and isolation facilities. It is also a call for the government to recalibrate contagious disease prevention strategies and a road map towards normalcy should be put in place.
At this time, there is need to hire more health workers who are given decent compensation and benefits like hazard pay, accommodation, transportation, insurance, protective equipment, and they should be the first to be vaccinated because of the health risk they are subjected to.
Credible volunteers must be mobilized to carry out virus detection and infection prevention throughout the communities.
More molecular laboratories are required to have quick and accurate tests of the prevalence of infection.
The hospital and isolation capacities and capabilities ought to be scaled up to accommodate patients and deliver effective health care services.
A purge on corruption in social amelioration and the health system must be done. Allocations should only be taken by those who deserve it.
The plight of many people who lost their means of livelihood and are starving, malnourished and are dying of hunger must be addressed.
Let us not just wait for vaccines to become available. We must move on with vigor and confidence in our efforts against the impact of Covid-19. — PERCIVAL B. ALIPIT, Baguio City