VOL. XXXV • NO. 25 • 2 SECTIONS 8 PAGES • P18 • SUNDAY, MARCH 7, 2021 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
CAREFREE AT THE BEACH. Friends happily board a banana boat at a long beach resort in Noveleta, Cavite on Saturday, as others try to beat the rising summer heat along the grey sands with their families (inset), all seemingly unmindful of the rising cases of the coronavirus disease in the past few weeks. JR Josue
Virus surge filling up hospitals Outbreak causing ‘Level 5’ event at PGH; NKTI stops admitting patients
By Willie Casas and Joel E. Zurbano
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OME top hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) have started to feel the effects of a surge in the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
This as the country logged Saturday 3,439 new cases of COVID, which is the highest for the year, bringing the total infections to 591,138, the Department of Health reported. The figures did not include nine laboratories that were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on March 5. According to the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, they have reported more than 100 new cases. There were 104 cases at the PGH as of Thursday. Fifteen healthcare workers at the PGH Hospital Infection Control Unit tested positive for COVID-19 from March 1 to March 4, 10 of them from coworkers or from “eating together.” The PGH’s outpatient department had to be temporarily closed due to the increase in cases The March 1 to March 4 figure compares with 15 in the whole month of December, 18 in January and 17 in February.
“One thing we noticed is that at least 15 healthcare workers had COVID over a short period of time, within a week,” PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario said, noting it was nearly equal to the monthly total from December 2020 to February 2021. “So that also raised a red flag that it might be that the UK and the S.A., South African variant is (sic) already in PGH,” he added. The Standard also learned from reliable sources that the National Kidney and Transplant Institute will stop admitting patients as long as COVID cases are surging, as some of their doctors and staff have been infected. Isolation rooms are also at full capacity across Metro Manila, they added. Interns at PGH were also sent home immediately as officials of the premier government hospital sought to shift to “full remote mode” until further notice. The outbreak at the hospital was classified as a “Level 5” event and was in line
with previous projections of a March outbreak, PGH sources told the Standard. Officials advised the staff to be extremely cautious going forward and recommended them to get vaccinated as soon as possible. New variants Meanwhile, one of the country’s top epidemiologists, who serves in a government body managing the pandemic, said new variants of the COVID-19 virus could be causing the surge in infections as the Department of Health recorded 3,045 additional cases on Friday. The figure is the second highest daily uptick in infections in five months after the government eased restrictions on travel, business establishments and mass gatherings. At an online press briefing, Dr. John Wong, a member of the technical working group on data analytics of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said that “one evidence that the variants could be causing this surge is we detected the variants just before cases start to rise.” “So there’s some indirect evidence that the variants are causing this surge,” he said. “We should encourage the public to take precautions.”
The reports did not say what variants of the coronavirus had afflicted its 15 healthcare workers. “Because of the observed surge in cases of HCW and patient admissions, we will be sending all positive swabs for genomic sequencing to the Philippine Genome Center,” the reports said. Wong was referring to the UK and the highly transmissible South African variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the severe respiratory disease. He said developments involving the new COVID-19 variants should be a cause for public concern. “The number of cases you see now should not be seen as sort of the maximum number of people or patients who have the variant. There could be more than that,” Wong said. Spike in cases The Department of Health is attributing the recent spike in COVID-19cases in the country to people’s failure to comply with minimum health standards that seek to prevent infection. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said this in a public press briefing Saturday, adding that the presence of more transmissible coronavirus variants in the country was just “aggravating factors” in the rising number of cases.
COVID-19 PH AT A GLANCE
(AS OF 4 PM MARCH 6)
591,138 TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES
3,439 43,323 NEW
ACTIVE
12,465
42
535,350
160
DEATHS
RECOVERIES
NEW
NEW
“We need to change public perception about this. Yes, we have detected variants, but we need to also see that we did not comply with health protocols. So if we see continuous violations of health guidance, definitely, the cases will rise. And the variants are just aggravating factors,” she said.
DOH studying sanctions on gov’t officials jumping vaccine lines 38k AstraZeneca By Willie Casas and Maricel V. Cruz THE Department of Health is studying what possible sanctions could be imposed against government officials and other individuals who got vaccinated against COVID-19 although they are not on the priority list as the supply of jabs in the country remains limited. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, in a press briefing, said they were studying sanctions such as possible administrative cases against erring officials, as health workers are supposed to be priority for vaccination. “That is being discussed right now. So, possible that there are administrative cases,
possible sanctions, and possible violations based on our existing policies,” Vergeire said, without mentioning any government official. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority public services head Michael Salalima were prompted to get vaccinated at the Pasay General Hospital. This, as government’s inoculation drive went underway with the arrival of COVID-19 jabs from China’s Sinovac. A new batch of vaccines, this time by AstraZeneca, arrived on Thursday through the vaccine-sharing COVAX facility. In good faith In a briefing Thursday, Roque said the said officials received the shots “in
good faith.” “The two, in good faith, thought that they were doing the nation a service by having themselves vaccinated because vaccine distrust is still high,” he said in a televised press briefing beamed nationwide. With the arrival of vaccine doses from AstraZeneca, Vergeire warned that the doses must be allotted to front line health workers, following COVAX guidelines, to avoid “jeopardizing” the agreement set between the Philippines and the global vaccine-sharing platform. “If we commit violations, this might jeopardize the succeeding supplies to be given by the COVAX facility. So we appeal to the public: we will all have our turn. Allow the hospitals, health workers to receive the vaccines,” Vergeire said.
ARTIST STEPS OUT OWNING A SPACE AT CASSY & JOAQUIN’S OF THE BEDROOM CENTURY PROPERTIES MANY FIRSTS That was the case with 21-year-old Brian Ilustrisimo Razon, a selfavowed “bedroom artist.”
THE thought of coming home to your own space can inspire one to work harder. But thinking about the process of owning a home can be worrisome.
TEEN stars Cassy Legaspi and Joaquin Domagoso are paired for the first time as onscreen love team via First Yaya, a family romantic comedy topbilled by Sanya Lopez.
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Around 13,000 health workers in the Philippines have been inoculated as of Friday. According to Vergeire, there are an estimated 1.8 million health workers in the country./Willie Casas Vaccine prioritization Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said, due to the limited global supply of vaccines and following the recommendation of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) along with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte, the allocation of vaccines must strictly follow the priority framework issued by the InterAgency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases to ensure that those who have the highest risk of exposure and death will be protected.
NEWS / A2
PALACE MOURNS FR. BERNAS, 88
doses arriving today via COVAX By Willie Casas
THE government is expecting the arrival of an additional 38,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX facility today, March 7, National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Saturday. On Thursday night, the initial 487,200 shots of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in the Philippines through the COVAX facility. By the third week of March, 400,000 more doses of Sinovac vaccines will be delivered. “We will prioritize the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccines to those who did not receive the Sinovac vaccines and are willing to get vaccinated,” Galvez said. The government will also prioritize the local deployment of AstraZeneca vaccines to areas with a surge in new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections, including Calabarzon and Central Visayas, as well as the cities of Baguio and Davao. “’Our priority is to give the vaccines to areas with a high number of new COVID-19 cases, “ he said. Amid the limited global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, Galvez said the arrival of AstraZeneca and Sinovac jabs was a huge relief. “As promised by the Chinese embassy and the Chinese government to complete one million doses, another 400,000 doses are set to arrive,” he said.
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