REP. ANGELICA NATASHA CO
BHW Party-list | Member for the Minority, Health,
Economic Affairs, and 12 other Committees
Author, Barangay Health and Wellness Reform Act (House Bill 3985)
One of House authors, Crushing COVID-19 Act (House Bill 6865)
09177292437 | https://www.facebook.com/BHWPhilippinesOfficial/
INCLUDE COVID-19 VACCINE, TREATMENTS IN 2021 NATIONAL BUDGET
[Simplify Quarantine Levels, Explain COVID-19 Using Cebuano and Other Regional Languages]
With Philippines’ COVID-19 cases surpassing 41,000 with the single-day addition of 1,494 new cases, I want to know the Department of Health’s plans and specific courses of action to abate this.
Is the DOH going to fine-tune its tactics and strategies? The curve has not flattened and we seem to be not “winning.”
This early, the national government must make the strategic decision of crafting a National Vaccination Plan.
This plan must avoid everything that went wrong with dengue vaccination and other vaccination efforts that backfired because of wrong implementation on the ground, out in the field.
The vaccine for COVID-19 must be included in the basic mandatory vaccination programs.
The budget for the COVID-19 national vaccination plan must be part of the 2021 national budget.
We will look for the COVID-19 vaccination plan in the P4.3 trillion proposed national budget.
To be consistent with all our country’s disaster threat alert systems, I suggest simplifying the naming of our COVID-19 quarantine levels. Let us simply use numbers. Let us use much less jargon and much less English because jargon and English alienate and isolate the poor who need help the most.
Quarantine 6 for the highest level we know to be enhanced community quarantine. Quarantine 1 for the lowest when the coronavirus threat is down to near-zero.
Yes, this alert level system looks forward to the time when the COVID-19 threat is down to almost zero. The threat will remain because the coronavirus is now forever out there.
For many years, the polio virus was gone but last year is resurfaced in residential areas where there is abject poverty.
The coronavirus started out as an infection spreading only among those with foreign travel history, but it soon found its way to the congested communities of urban informal settlers, the remote homes of the poor in the provinces, and to the residences and workplaces of the rich and middle class.
This is the COVID-19 alert level system I suggest and it has six levels:
· Quarantine 6 – to mean Enhanced Community Quarantine
· Quarantine 5 – ito mean General Community Quarantine (Local Community Transmission in progress)
· Quarantine 4 – to mean Modified Community Quarantine (Expanded COVID-19 Testing Phase)
· Quarantine 3 – to mean Modified Community Quarantine (Pre-Vaccination Phase)
· Quarantine 2 – to mean of Modified Community Quarantine (All Philippine Residents, Incoming Travelers Being Vaccinated)
· Quarantine 1 – to mean Basic Community Quarantine – COVID-19 Threat Level at Near-Zero, Continuing Vaccination of Newborns, New Travelers)