By NG Seruela
The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly reiterates the importance of the compliance with the minimum public health standards amid the Delta variant threat in the Philippines.
In today’s (Aug.5) Laging Handa public briefing, WHO Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said many countries experiencing Delta variant surge were a result of “breakdown or non-compliance with the minimum public health standards.”
“So it is critically important that we continue to practice the minimum public health standard at the community level to ensure that we reduce the opportunities for this change of transmission to get momentum,” he said.
He emphasized that with that, the increasing number of cases connected to the Delta variant can be managed.
He also recommended preparing the hospital care system in facilitating quarantine isolation and management of patients as the country faces the Delta variant threat.
“The other actions that we need to do is to recognize the eventual increase in the number of cases because of higher transmissibility and we need to prepare hospital care systems or TTMFs to facilitate quarantine isolation and management of patients.”
Moreover, he urged the senior citizens and persons with comorbidities to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to “reduce the number of severe and complicated cases and through this we could potentially help delay or circumvent overwhelming of the hospitals.”
“So, the measures being implemented now to increase vaccination coverage and also to strengthen the NPI, the non-pharmaceutical interventions, the movement restrictions will all go a long way to help mitigate in dealing with the impending increase of cases driven by the Delta variants. So, these are all important,” he highlighted.
Abeyasinghe said countries who focused their vaccination on the elderly and comorbid population have seen less overwhelmed hospitals despite the cases increasing.
“So, this is why even in this situation where we are attempting to vaccinate as many people as possible, we still need to keep the focus on vaccinating the elderly and the comorbid populations so that when the increase in transmission happens we are able to prevent an overwhelming of the hospital care capacities.”
The WHO representative also emphasized the preparation for additional oxygen sources in anticipation of the Delta variant surge.
“And the last measure I think is in preparation for this, we need to see how we can mobilize additional oxygen sources because we’ve seen the Delta variant has caused significant demand in many countries – initially, India, now, Indonesia, Myanmar – we’ve seen that hospitals are running short of oxygen supplies,” he said.
“So, it is now time for us to prepare for this situation in anticipation as we do everything to try to reduce the numbers that will be generated and delay then spread it out by flattening the curve. We need also to prepare for the eventuality that we will need more oxygen supplies so that we can better care for our patients,” he added. – rir
