News Roundup 27 April 2021
Apr 27, 2021 • 4 min Read
Coronavirus cases in Philippines rise to 1,013,618 | PHILSTAR.COM – The Philippines on Tuesday recorded 7,204 additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 1,013,618.
- Active cases: 71,675 or 7.1% of the total
- Recoveries: 10,109 pushing total to 925,027
- Deaths: 63, bringing total to 16,916
Robredo’s office calls for more volunteers for teleconsultation service | PHILSTAR.COM – The Office of the Vice President (OVP) is calling for more medical and non-medical volunteers for its teleconsultation service that caters to patients from Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The OVP said it needs more doctors, particularly psychiatrists, surgeons, neurologists, allergologists, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists and cardiologists, and psychologists for its Bayanihan E-Konsulta program, which is available on Facebook and Messenger. It is also calling for more non-medical volunteers who can facilitate chat support triaging and tagging of patients, regular monitoring of COVID-19 patients, call bridging and tech support. Robredo said volunteers can come from anywhere in the country since all consultations are done over the phone. She added that there are no minimum hours for volunteers to render in a week. “We know how busy all of you are so we will adjust to your convenience and availability,” the vice president said. Robredo reported that as of April 23, Bayanihan E-Konsulta has received 25,494 transactions, averaging about 1,500 a day. Bayanihan E-Konsulta is currently manned by 642 volunteer doctors, 1,974 non-medical volunteers and 87 OVP staff, according to Robredo. “We are already overwhelmed by the generosity and selflessness of our volunteer doctors but we need more so we can serve more,” she said.
15 senators want Parlade censured over ‘stupid’ remark | INQUIRER.NET – Fifteen senators on Tuesday filed a resolution calling to censure Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. over his “derogatory” and “demeaning” remarks against some members of the Senate. “[I]nstead of engaging in a constructive debate, Lt. Gen. Parlade has chosen to demean and disparage the Senators, through statements that display his limited grasp of Congress’ role in the budget process and show his lack of respect not just for the Senators as duly-elected representatives of the people but also for the Senate as an institution,” Senate Resolution No. 709 read. The resolution states that Parlade should be censured “for his disrespectful, derogatory and demeaning statements against members of the Senate following their criticism of his persistent red-tagging of civilians.” The resolution was triggered by Parlade’s “stupid” remark against senators who broached the idea of defunding the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). Parlade is NTF-ELCAC spokesperson who also spoke out against some organizers of community pantries. “[Parlade], in a series of statements, has publicly tagged personalities, party list groups, universities, colleges, and members of the academe as communists without the benefit of trial, bereft of proof or evidence,” the resolution read.
OCTA: Sans vaccines, densely populated NCR remains vulnerable to COVID outbreaks | Manila Bulletin – OCTA Research Group urged the government to evaluate the surge capacity of densely populated Metro Manila as the threat of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak will remain present while waiting for the arrival of vaccines. “Preparing for a surge requires knowledge of the current surge capacities for contact tracing, testing, and hospitalization. Anticipating the level of the surge is important in order to scale up these capacities,” OCTA said in a special report released on Tuesday, April 27. “Without preparation, the only recourse once the surge exceeds these capacities is to lockdown, in order to prevent a further overwhelming of hospitals,” it added. OCTA said that preparing for a possible outbreak requires an honest evaluation of the surge capacity in four important criteria–contact tracing, testing, health care system, and isolation and quarantine facilities. Based on available data, the surge capacity in the National Capital Region (NCR) for testing is 3,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, and the surge capacity for hospitalization is 2,688 new COVID-19 cases per day. Estimating the surge capacity for contact tracing requires more data but a current estimate is 1,500 new COVID-19 cases per day. “Suppose that the NCR local governments are able to contact trace 15,000 fresh contacts per day. In January, when the daily new cases in NCR was around 500, this would mean a contact tracing ratio of 1:30,” OCTA cited. However, during the surge in March 2021, the NCR averaged around 5,000 new cases per day. Given the same contact tracing capacity, this gives a ratio of only 1:3. “Three contacts made per day for each identified infected individual is unfortunately not very efficient,” OCTA pointed out. “These three contacts are usually just the people in the same household as the infected. Contact tracing is very important in the early identification of those who are exposed to the virus because reducing viral transmissions by infected individuals will reduce the observed reproduction number,” it added.
