Salceda

No to COVID-19 level 2

June 14, 2022 Jester P. Manalastas 326 views

RAISING to level 2 the COVID-19 alert in the National Capital Region was strongly opposed by Albay Representative Joey Salceda.

Salceda said placing NCR and other key cities in the country under tighter restrictions will cause massive hunger for the 640,000 families in Metro Manila.

“At this point, the alert level system, which is primarily based on number of COVID-19 cases, no longer makes sense from a healthcare point of view. Cases will always be there, so we have to measure our ability to live with the cases,” he said.

Earlier, the DoH announced that it may recommend the Alert Level 2 Metro Manila as the cases of coronavirus (COVD-19) are slightly up.

But SAlceda said that Executive Order No. 166 s. 2022 already prescribes the use of more useful and empowering metrics for decision making on COVID-19. It explicitly instructs the use of both total and severe cases, case fatality, and vaccination rates for decisions on restrictions.

“That EO is already the law. So, we should be changing paradigms. In Albay, in my district, I have already instructed the regional hospital and the COVID management committee to prepare our most vulnerable population and healthcare workers with boosters,” he said.

“I also remind the IATF that every week in lockdown in NCR costs workers around P1.6 billion in salaries. If they have no plan for how to replace the nutrition, non-COVID health, and welfare losses from that, then we should be more circumspect about declaring alert levels,” Salceda added.

Earlier, Salceda has also warned of a possible nutrition crisis due to higher prices of food.

“An alert level increase will worsen the food situation for around 640,000 households in NCR, and could bring them below the hunger line. Again, I hope the IATF considers that,” Salceda stressed.

“We had around 74,000 deaths that were COVID-19 related in 2021. But total deaths, year-on-year, grew by 154,562. So, actually, you had more people dying of non-COVID causes, than COVID itself, perhaps due to the economic effects,” he also said.

The solon said an early lockdown would have worked, but lockdowns at this late stage of the pandemic, especially now that people have learned to live with it, would be counterproductive both health-wise and economy-wise.

He urged Filipinos to follow minimum health standards and take care of their health. The lawmaker also said that vaccines, better nutrition, and the certainty that there will be hospital beds should be implemented.