Malacañang on Saturday said members of the Cabinet, executive offices and Covid-19 task forces took part in a meeting convened by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to address concerns raised by a group of doctors to President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the meeting was joined by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.
National Task Force (NTF) Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez, anti-Covid czars NTF Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon and One Hospital Incident Command Chief Leopoldo Vega and Sen. Bong Go, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, also attended the meeting.
Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Michael Ong and Presidential Assistant for Foreign Affairs Robert Borje also participated.
Recommendations from the meeting, details of which have yet to be made public, were to be submitted for Duterte’s review.
The Philippine College of Physicians on Saturday proposed Metro Manila’s return to enhanced community quarantine until Aug. 15 to give health workers a breathing room amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already infected almost 100,000 Filipinos.
“Our healthcare workers are falling ill as they take care of patients, responding to the call of duty while battling the fear and anxiety Covid-19 brings. Our healthcare workers are burnt out with the seemingly endless number of patients tramping to our hospitals for emergency care and admission,” it said in a statement addressed to Duterte, Duque and Galvez.
In response, Duterte directed the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases to “act on these concerns immediately.”
Community quarantines in multiple parts of the country have been eased since June to give way for the reopening of the economy. However, it also led to faster coronavirus transmission, causing more than 70,000 new infections in July alone. John Ezekiel J. Hirro