After two and a half months of\nlockdown, the public healthcare system remains unequipped with the necessary\nweapons to fight COVID-19. The Philippine government imposed a total lockdown\ndubbed as the \u201cenhanced community quarantine\u201d or ECQ last March 16 after there\nwas a confirmed local transmission of COVID-19. The announcement was totally\nunprecedented and ill-planned. It caused a lot of confusion among Filipino\ncitizens and even among implementing agencies and local government units. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The basis for this lockdown was to\nstall the spread of the coronavirus while preparing the needed facilities to\nfight the disease. Ideally it should be the government\u2019s opportunity to equip\nthe health system with enough facilities and health workers to brace for the\nsecond wave of COVID cases. But has the lockdown been truly beneficial in\npreparing the public health system for the worst of the pandemic that is yet to\ncome?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under-capacitated<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a Philippine\nInstitute for Development Studies (PIDS) discussion paper<\/a> released last\nApril, the country will need a total of 182,000 hospital beds during the peak\nmonth in the best case scenario. But as per a recent Department\nof Health (DOH) situationer<\/a>, the overall bed capacity of the public health system\nis only 13,565 which only covers about 7% of the total hospital beds needed.\nCurrently, there are only 2,005 mechanical ventilators available, very far from\nthe estimated 30,000 ventilators that the country will need during the peak of\nthe disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to the health\nworkforce needed, the country will require a total of 88,000 doctors and\n118,000 nurses for COVID patients. There are just 52,000 doctors and 351,000\nnurses available for all diseases and care, and we cannot of course assume that\nthey should be dedicated to only attend to COVID patients. Again, these\nestimates are just for the best-case scenario which will only happen if 70% of\ntotal symptomatic cases will be isolated. This seems unattainable with the\ncurrent status or practical non-existence of mass testing and contact tracing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, the government has failed\nto maximize its imposed lockdown to fill the existing gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass\narrests instead of mass testing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of acquiring the necessary\nequipment and building additional facilities, the government has focused more\non restricting people\u2019s mobility and using military forces in enforcing the\nquarantine. The government has not only been slow \u2013 it has also made poor\ndecisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of prioritizing mass\ntesting to identify and isolate affected individuals and infusing funds for\nthis, government chose to fully restrict economic activity, which has disrupted\npeople\u2019s livelihoods and incomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There was even a time when there\nwere more individuals apprehended and arrested than tested for COVID. According\nto the Coalition for People\u2019s Right to Health, as of May 3 there were a total\nof 158,353 quarantine violators, with 42,138 arrests made. Meanwhile, there were\nonly 106,520 unique individuals and 120,736 tests conducted overall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n