News Roundup 28 March 2021
Mar 28, 2021 • 4 min Read
DOH records 9,475 new COVID-19 cases as ‘NCR Plus’ readies for new ECQ | PHILSTAR.COM – Health officials on Sunday reported 9,475 new coronavirus cases, ahead of Greater Manila Area’s return to Enhanced Community Quarantine. The development on March 28 pushes the country’s overall count to 721,892. This is also the third straight day that the Philippines saw more than 9,000 additional COVID-19 infections.
- Active cases: 105,568, or 14.6% of the total
- Recoveries: 22,000, bringing the number to 603,154
- Deaths: 11, or now 13,170 in total
DOTr: No disruption of transport services except for reduced capacity | PHILSTAR.COM – With a second enhanced community quarantine starting on Monday, all modes of public transportation are expected to continue unhampered by the uniform curfews, albeit at drastically scaled back capacity, transportation officials disclosed Sunday. “Movement of persons shall be limited to essential purpose or activities, and authorized persons outside of residences,” the coronavirus task force’s guidelines on enhanced community quarantine read. Memories of the pandemic’s earlier transport woes are still fresh. The first ECQ in March saw a return of the familiar transport pitfalls that commuter groups have long bemoaned in the country’s public transportation system: long lines at public transportation hubs and extreme congestion on major thoroughfares. In the absence of transportation, thousands of Filipinos, some of them healthcare frontliners, were forced to walk to work or learn to bike, in a pandemic that requires social distancing. Transport advocates with the Move as One coalition have cast fear over a repeat of this scenario, urging the national government in a letter to ensure sufficient capacity for the one week of ECQ.
Villanueva to IATF: Draw up ‘battle plan’ to help hospitals in NCR Plus | INQUIRER.NET – Senator Joel Villanueva urged the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to expand its enhanced community quarantine guidelines for NCR Plus and come up with an “urgent plan’ to help decongest the hospitals that have been at the mercy of COVID-19. Villanueva, chair of the Senate Labor Committee, said the initiative to help hospitals was absent in the IATF guidelines for the one-week ECQ imposed on NCR Plus—Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal—that was announced Saturday. “Hospitals are hanging ‘No admission for COVID patients’ signs. Sa isang pasyenteng naghihingalo, ito na po ang pinakamasakit mong mababasa. Ano kaya po ang magandang solusyon dito?” said Villanueva in a statement Sunday. “Mukhang ito po ang missing link doon sa IATF advisory. Sana naman maihabol ito kaagad. If hospitals were ER patients, this is the urgent cure and care they require.” (Hospitals are hanging ‘no admission for COVID patients’ signs/ For a patient who’s dying, that’s the most painful thing to see. What’s a good solution for this?) Villanueva said the hospital, be it private or public, is the ground zero of the battle against the COVID-19 virus and that it should not be left alone to deal with the surge of cases. Several NCR hospitals are already releasing statements that they can no longer admit patients as they are now over their bed capacity.
DOTr clarifies ECQ travel protocols | Manila Bulletin – The Department of Transportation (DOTr) clarified late Sunday afternoon, March 28 the public transportation protocols that will be observed within “NCR-plus” during the week-long enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the area. Perhaps the DOTr’s single most important reminder to the public on the ECQ implementation from March 29 to April 4 is that only authorized persons outside residence or APORs can go outdoors during this period. “The ID that you would need to show to prove that you’re an APOR would depend on which category you belong to as being an APOR. If you’re a medical frontliner then just bring your hospital ID to show to those who will be checking,” DOTr Usec. Ochie Tuazon said in mixed Filipino and English during a virtual press conference. As a blanket advice, Tuazon told Filipinos not to leave the house if they are none-APOR. He also said that individuals who will be traveling to NCR-plus (National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal) during the period won’t be allowed inside the “bubble” unless he or she is an APOR. “They should just postpone their return here for the meantime of they are not APOR,” he said.
