‘Too general’: Robredo bats for clear, specific goals for ECQ extension

The national government must set "clear and specific" goals during the extended enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to avoid repeating  the same process in addressing the pandemic, Vice President Leni Robredo said Sunday.

"Sa akin, Ka Ely, ang suggestion ko, para may objective, iyong sinasabi natin na may scorecard sana. Dapat lahat na ginagawa natin mayroong timeline, mayroong scorecard," Robredo said in her radio program.

[There should be a timeline, scorecard in everything we do. There should be objectives.]

"Halimbawa, kung magdagdag tayo ng one week, ano iyong gusto nating ma-achieve sa April 11 kasi matatapos na iyong April 11, ‘di ba? Kasi ang sinasabi niya naman, sa April 11, i-a-assess namin kung kailangan i-extend o hindi. Eh bumabalik lang tayo doon sa dati. So sa akin lang, Ka Ely, sana may weekly na goals," she added.

[Since we are extending, we need to find out what we should achieve on April 11, because April 11 will be finished. Because what we will see is on April 11, we will assess if the ECQ will be extended or not. But we are just going back so for me there should be weekly goals.]

She also lamented that the government's PDITR (prevent, detect, isolate, treat, reintegrate) strategy was too general, saying it was no different from last year's pandemic efforts.

"Nagagalit iyong ibang supporters ng administrasyon na 'bakit tinatanong mo na ano iyong plano? Nandito na iyong plano.' Pero iyong plano kasi masyadong general.. iyong plano masyadong general. Kapag sinabi mong PDITR iyong plano, anong kaibahan nito noong nakaraan na one year na nating ginagawa," Robredo said.

[Some supporters are getting mad, why are we asking for plans when the government has plans. But these plans are too general. When you say PDITR, how is this different from last year's efforts?]

Number of tests, accessible testing

As the country continues to wait for vaccine deliveries, Robredo said there should still be targeted testing for local government units in the NCR plus bubble to determine the risk of transmission in the area.

"So dapat sana per LGU dito sa bubble, may kuwenta na tayo ilan ba iyong kailangan niyang i-test at masasabi mo lang kung ilan iyong kailangan i-test kapag kinompute mo kung ilan ba iyong transmission—ilan ba iyong kaso rito at saka ilan iyong population," said Robredo.

[Per LGUs, there should be a number of tests and you can say how many were needed to test to compute the risk of transmission—and how many are the cases and its population.]

Aside from the molecular labs, Robredo said establishment mobile testing sites are necessary to make sure that testing is "accessible for all."

The Office of the Vice President recently put up Swab Cabs, which uses antigen testing to immediately detect, trace and treat patients in high-risk areas. It started pilot testing in Malabon City.

As of Sunday, the total number of people sickened with COVID-19 reached 795,051 in the Philippines.

Centralize contact tracing

In a series of tweets, Robredo also called on the government to unify or centralize all contact tracing apps as local government units have different contact tracing apps.

"All LGUs that already have different contact tracing apps should be connected to Staysafe," she said, referring to the StaySafe.ph app.

Robredo also called for setting goals for contact tracing such as reaching the ratio of 1:37 goal, as what contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong said.

Magalong previously said the efficiency ratio decreased from 1:7 to 1:3 amid the sudden surge of COVID-19 infections in the country. 

Support for vulnerable families

Support should be rendered for low-income families when one of their members is under isolation for COVID-19 treatment, Robredo also said.

"For the vulnerable, make sure that there is support for the family when one is in isolation. Ito usually ang dahilan kung bakit may resistance sa isolation [This is usually the reason why there is resistance to isolation]," the vice president said.

Meanwhile, Robredo advised that those who are capable of getting treated at home should have access to doctors, care kits and basic medical equipment.

"For those with capacity to self isolate at home, make sure medical help is available—doctors to call, COVID kits, basic medical equipment in barangay health centers that they have immediate access to, ambulance available anytime that people don’t have to pay for," she said. — BM, GMA News