Stronger primary health care pushed to prepare Phl for future pandemics

The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday said it is pushing for a stronger primary health care to prepare the country for the next pandemic.

"Four years after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases first recommended to former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to impose a nationwide 'enhanced community quarantine' to save the lives and protect from COVID-19, the DOH continues to be vigilant for any new infectious disease threats along with the many other health conditions affecting Filipinos," DOH said.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on July 2023 lifted the nationwide state of public health emergency due to Covid-19, ending over three years of various degrees of pandemic restrictions.

The DOH said it has instituted early on a scientific "PDITR" response framework which stands for prevent, detect, isolate, treat, and reintegrate.

"Prevention measures started with minimum public health standards. Detection was rapidly scaled up; molecular laboratories capable of PCR tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus became available nationwide," DOH noted.

"This has kept the number of new cases in check, and the technology is being repurposed to rapidly detect other pressing diseases like Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS," it added.

Covid-19 cases

The DOH also reported 251 new Covid-19 cases from 27 February to 4 March, which resulted to an average of 36 cases reported per day.

This is 27 percent lower compared to the average cases recorded last 20 to 26 February.

Meanwhile, out of the 1,185 dedicated Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) beds available as of 14 March, only 115 (10 percent) were occupied, while only 1,119 (11 percent) of the 10,097 dedicated Covid-19 non-ICU beds were in use.

There were 156 severe and critical cases admitted in various hospitals due to Covid-19.

Out of the new Covid-19 cases recently reported, only three had severe or critical disease.

Seven deaths were recorded, five of which occurred from 20 February to 4 March.

For comparison, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, there were as many as 34,903 new cases daily on average in January 2022.

For health care utilization, the highest occupancy of total Covid-19 beds was at 71 percent and ICU beds at 74 percent last September 2021, with more beds dedicated then (35,499 total), than now (11,852).

"The DOH credits this low severity and fatality to the protection given by our high vaccination coverage," DOH said.

"The Philippines made available not just one or two Covid-19 vaccine types, but several, allowing rapid access by vulnerable groups," it added.