By Christine Fabro
The Department of Health (DOH) said it has learned lessons on how to better prepare if another COVID-19 surge happens this year, and for the possible spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
During President Rodrigo Duterte’s July 19 public address, Health Sec. Francisco Duque III said that Doors 3 and 4 of the Four-Door strategy will be strictly implemented to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
“Patuloy nating binabantayan ang ating mga kaso at ang atin pong health systems indicators, at pinaiigting ang pagpapatupad ng iba’t-ibang response strategies, upang mapigilan ang posibleng surge na kasalukuyang nararanasan ng ating mga karatig na bansa katulad ng Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand,” Duque said.
In a DOH media briefing on July 16, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that with the detection of local cases of the Delta variant, the DOH has activated the third and fourth doors of its Four-Door strategy to contain the variant’s spread and prevent a surge in cases.
“Door 3 would implement the strengthening of our PDITR (Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate) strategies to detect and isolate possible COVID cases, while Door 4 is ensuring that our healthcare capacity is ready for a surge,” she said.
Four-Door Strategy
Door 1: Point of Origin
To prevent the arrival of travelers from very high risk countries, travel bans and restrictions are imposed.
Door 2: Point of Entry
To contain and mitigate the cases, screening, quarantine, and testing at points of entry are conducted.
Door 3: Point of Care
To further prevent the local spread of COVID-19, PDITR and vaccination are implemented.
Door 4: Epidemic Surge
To prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed, wide-scale community quarantines are imposed, as well as enhanced PDITR.
Vergeire said that using the four-door strategy, the country has delayed the entry of the Delta variant with the activation of Doors 1 and 2.
“Ito pong Door 3, kailangang paigtingin po talaga ng ating mga local governments ang PDITR response natin, doing active case finding. And also they have to shorten the duration from the time that a person is detected na may sintomas o ‘di kaya ay positibo, hanggang iyong mai-isolate natin sila o ma-quarantine para mas bumaba po ang mga kaso,” Vergeire said.
“And para naman po doon sa Door 4, this is improving the health system capacity. Kailangan po lahat ngayon ay handa na to expand the number of beds in hospitals. We should do inventories of our oxygen supply. We should pre-position logistics already like drugs and other supplies na kakailanganin po ng ating mga ospital para lahat po tayo ay handa,” she added.
As of July 20, the Philippine Genome Center has detected 35 cases of COVID-19 Delta variant in the Philippines.
While the DOH had seen the entry of Delta variant as a “big concern” to the government’s COVID-19 containment efforts, it said it has learned lessons from the April 2021 surge in cases. – jlo
