THE INTER-AGENCY Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has quickly acted to the concerns raised by Mayor Beng Climaco on the increasing number of Covid-19 patients from Tawi-Tawi province now in local hospitals.
The influx of patients has aggravated the situation in
already congested isolation facilities here.
Tawi-Tawi has over four dozen active Covid cases, but the brunt of
the impact of the pandemic has affected at least 6 dozen medical frontliners,
including 8 doctors who are infected with the virus. Because of this, the Integrated Provincial Health Office
was forced to temporarily close to prevent the spread of the deadly viral
infection.
Climaco said she convened an emergency meeting of key departments
under the Zamboanga Task Force Covid-19 which she chaired in an effort to find
solutions to the problems.
She said Secretary Carlito Galvez, Chief Implementer of the Philippines' Declared National Policy against Covid-19,
assured her the IATF-EID, headed by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, will
put up a task force that will address or come up with better
calibrated response on the health situation in Tawi-Tawi.
The Task Force, according to Galvez, will be composed of the following
– the Department of National Defense, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Office of the Civil Defense, Western Mindanao Command,
Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Tawi-Tawi provincial
government, and other concerned government agencies.
He said a contingent from BARMM led by the Ministry of Health and
IATF-EID will collaborate with Zamboanga’s task force on Covid-19 to help
address the health situation in Tawi-Tawi.
Climaco said Galvez also told her that the Department of Health will
facilitate the establishment of Covid testing laboratories such as the
GeneXpert instrument for Tawi-Tawi. “We thanked the IATF-EID through Secretary
Galvez for responding to our request without hesitation,” she said, stressing
that strong collaboration between government agencies is urgent to ensure that
all steps are being taken to curb the spread of the virus.
Last month, the Tawi-Tawi IATF-EID headed by Governor Yshmael Sali held an emergency meeting due to the sudden
spike in Covid cases.
The meeting deliberated about strategies on how to address the health
crisis while taking into consideration the economic interest of the people. It
also urged the police to implement existing quarantine rules, and advises the
public to strictly follow the health protocols such as wearing of face mask and
observing social distancing.
The provincial government also gave out P10,000 support allowance to
each of the health workers infected by Covid in recognition of their service as
they are now in isolation after being exposed to the virus. (Zamboanga Post)
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