News Roundup 31 January 2021
Jan 31, 2021 • 4 min Read
DOH adds 2,103 coronavirus cases as tally breaches 525,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – The Department of Health reported 2,103 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, January 31, bringing the number of total cases to 525,618. Of the total caseload, 27,318 or 5.2% are still classified as active cases, or patients who have neither passed away nor recovered and are still in hospitals and quarantine facilities. The department in its latest case bulletin also reported 80 new deaths, bringing the total death toll to 10,749. Exactly 487,551 have so far recovered after the DOH added 11,653 more recoveries, good for a 92.8% recovery rate.
Health workers on gov’t pandemic response a year later: ‘Inefficient, negligent, failure’ | PHILSTAR.COM – Health workers fighting the pandemic in the country for nearly a year now have lamented the Duterte administration’s poor response to their needs, describing their condition as deplorable. The Philippines on Saturday, January 30 marked the first year since it confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, a Chinese tourist from Wuhan, the COVID-19’s ground zero. The figure would eventually soar to more than 523,000 infected and nearly 10,700 dead a year later. Some 14,393 medical workers have since contracted the virus to date per data from the health department, with fatalities at 83 and active cases at 303. In a statement, the Alliance of Health Workers described government’s response to their plight as having “remained extremely slow, numb and deaf” and that there had been no difference in their working conditions from the grueling year that was 2020. “Nothing has changed in our situation,” said Robert Mendoza, AHW’s national president. “Many health workers from the regions still lack of protective gear, severe understaffing in public hospitals and health facilities that lead to health workers to extend long hours of duty, low wages, over delayed of payment of miniscule and selective benefits such as actual hazard duty pay and special risk allowance.” Some of the difficulties Filipino health workers have had to grapple with are violence and discrimination, as well as delay in compensation and release of their hazard pay. Many have also protested the administration’s move earlier to halt their deployment abroad. And while the rule has since been relaxed, there remains a cap of only 5,000 medical personnel allowed to leave the country in the hopes of better wages at a time when the economic impact of the COVID-19 had been harsh at home.
Fix pandemic response instead of defending it — Robredo | INQUIRER.NET – The government should act and fix the country’s response against the Covid-19 pandemic instead of defending it, Vice President Leni Robredo said Sunday. This was her response to the study by Australian think-tank Lowy Institute’s COVID Performance Index where the Philippines ranked 79th place out of 98 countries for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, putting it well behind its Asian neighbors. “Sana iyong mga ganitong mga assessment, seryosohin. Instead na depensahan, tanggapin, hanapan ng solusyon. Kasi hanggang ngayon, kapag pinakinggan natin, dinedepensahan pa din,” Robredo said during her weekly radio show. (I hope these kinds of assessments are taken seriously. We should accept it and find solutions instead of defending it.) “Mahirap kasi kapag dinedepensahan, kasi ikaw kuntento ka na sa ginagawa mo eh. Kapag kuntento ka na sa ginagawa mo, hindi ka nag-iimprove,” she added. (It’s difficult to defend because it means you are contented with what you’re doing. If you’re contented, you don’t improve.) She hopes the government learns from better-performing countries to improve its pandemic response.
Leni urges Filipinos to enlist for 2022 | Manila Bulletin – As the 2022 elections approaches, Vice President Leni Robredo underscored Sunday the importance for people who are eligible to vote to register before the registration period ends on Sept. 30. Speaking on her weekly radio show with broadcaster Ely Saludar, Robredo stressed how crucial it was for people to exercise their right of suffrage even in this time of the coronavirus pandemic. “We know, we understand the people are afraid to go out, but there are many ways to adjust the registration process,” she said. The Vice President noted that only less than half of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) target of four million new voters has so far registered for the May elections next year. According to the poll body, it had received 1.17 million applications as of January since voter registration resumed last Sept. 1. The Comelec had to suspend the registration in March last year when the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed. Robredo cited that in 2019, there were many eligible voters who did not register to vote and even those who registered did not vote during the midterm elections. This happened, too, during the US elections in 2016 when “too many” people did not cast their ballots. Later, studies showed that those who did not vote were part of minority groups. “If you noticed, Ka Ely, in the 2020 elections, they campaigned for everyone to vote,” Robredo said, referring to the recently concluded US presidential elections that saw the defeat of a populist leader in President Donald Trump. The lady official suggested the local government units can help to enhance the voter registration by putting up mobile registration booth or providing transportation to applicants.
