WHO urges Philippines to ramp up oxygen supplies amid Delta variant threat

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday urged the Philippines to increase oxygen supplies needed to treat COVID-19 patients as the country tries to contain the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

At the Laging Handa briefing, WHO country representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe said some countries battling a surge driven by the Delta variant had experienced a spike in demand for medical oxygen. 

“We need to see how we can mobilize additional oxygen sources because we’ve seen the Delta variant has caused a significant demand in many countries, initially India, now Indonesia, Myanmar. We’ve seen that hospitals are running short of oxygen supplies,” he said.

“We need to also prepare for the eventuality that we will need more oxygen supplies so that we can better care for our patients.”

Abeyasinghe also urged the public to continue observing the minimum health standards and the government to focus its vaccination campaign on the most vulnerable groups such as the elderly and people with comorbidities.

“Vaccines are still capable of protecting people from severe disease. That’s why we continue to say let’s use vaccines to protect those people who are at high risk of severe disease,” he said.

“In this way, we can have an increase of transmission but we could prevent an overwhelming of the hospital system and if we can do that we can bring back economic activity without long shutdown or lockdown.”

Health authorities believe the Delta variant may be driving the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases recorded recently, but other variants such as Alpha and Beta could also be a factor in the uptick.

The Philippines has logged 1,856 Alpha cases, 2,146 Beta cases, and 216 Delta cases as of July 28.

“Consecutive series of samples have indicated that there are [cases of the] Delta variant in many regions of the country and in many cities of NCR (National Capital Region),” Abeyasinghe said.

“So this drives us to conclude that with the limited capacity of testing that we have for whole genome sequencing that there could potentially be a much larger footprint of the Delta variant in the country.”

Regardless of whether or not there is community transmission, Abeyasinghe stressed the importance of taking a “risk-based approach” in trying to minimize the potential further spread of the Delta variant.

“It’s not important whether there is a surge or any increase in cases. We need to recognize that we are facing a risk because of a highly transmissible variant of the disease. We need to implement measures now,” he said.

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier said the reimposition of the strictest lockdown regulations in Metro Manila from August 6 to 20 could prevent daily new cases from swelling to 15,000.

Despite the tightening of restrictions, however, the total number of active cases in Metro Manila is still seen to hit 30,000 by end-September.

Authorities have also said Metro Manila would inoculate 250,000 people daily and conduct 24/7 vaccination during the two-week enhanced community quarantine. —KBK, GMA News