MANILA, Philippines – The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPi) on Wednesday expressed doubt that the new quarantine alert level system can help bring down COVID-19 cases in the country.
PHAPi president Dr. Rene de Grano said healthcare workers understand the need to balance the economy and public health in implementing quarantine classifications.
But he questioned the basis of shifting to a policy with different alert levels based on COVID-19 case transmission and healthcare utilization.
De Grano also said that the current efforts on contact tracing and the government’s data on transmission rate still need improvement in order for the system to be effective.
“Ang nakikita kong problem diyan is iyong basis ng levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Ang basis nila, first is the case transmission. It’s okay as long as iyong ating contact tracing is very credible and well done, but presently parang kulang na kulang. So we cannot have siguro a very reliable case transmission rate,” he said.
“Kung reliable iyong ating contact tracing then tama lang na we can rely on that. Nakita natin, let’s say in an area in a barangay, there are, let’s say, more than 20% na infected, then you can do something about it,” he added.
De Grano said hospital occupancy rate should not be used as basis in determining the alert level per area as some hospitals are catering to patients coming from other provinces.
Areas with big hospitals such as the St. Lukes Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, and the Asian Hospital would also be placed often under alert levels 4 and 5 as these facilities serve many COVID-19 patients.
“Hindi nga ano iyon eh mahirap gawing basis iyong kasi patients do not come from the area… Patients come especially from Southern Tagalog Region,” he said.
The PHAPi hopes that the government will be able to craft the most suitable policy to effectively curb the virus transmission.
“This is really a trial experimental thing. So anyway, after the two weeks siguro they’ll think of another way to do it and hopefully they’ll learn something from it. Again, it’s a balancing act hindi natin pwedeng sabihin na ito na lang ang ire-resolve natin. Kailangan pa rin ma-resolve ang economic problem naman ng tao kasi otherwise, kapag gutom na tao wala silang pakialam eh, kapag lalo wala ka nang makain,” he said.
The Department of Health earlier said that the country’s COVID-19 classification remains at high-risk amid high infections rate and healthcare utilization.
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