Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Mike Defensor
MANILA -- A party-list lawmaker on Thursday appealed to travelers who have arrived from Wuhan, China to get checked immediately for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Mike Defensor, the vice-chairperson of the House Committee on Health, made the call after the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed a 38-year-old Chinese female as the first case of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) in the country.
"First let me commend the DOH for being able to track the infected person immediately. As reported, people coming from Wuhan cannot be tracked immediately since their departure is not directly from Wuhan but from somewhere else," Defensor said.
"I appeal to the people who came from Wuhan or those who have visited the place to have themselves checked immediately. It is for their safety and for the community," he added.
According to the DOH, the confirmed case arrived in the Philippines from Wuhan, China via Hong Kong last Jan. 21, 2020.
Defensor noted that the DOH is correct in checking the persons who might have been infected, from the airline flight to the places she went to.
"The flights and seating can easily be checked with the airline manifesto. Subsequently, the people in the places she checked in should be examined immediately."
He, however, cautioned against discrimination and witch-hunting as the virus spreads. "We are here to help one another and not to put the blame."
Meanwhile, Kabayan Party-list Rep. Ron Salo, chair of the House Committee on Public Information, appealed to the public to read and share the official statements of the DOH concerning the novel coronavirus.
"Please do not believe or spread fake news and alarmist message. Let us help instead of impeding it. I trust that the DOH is already doing all the necessary measures to protect the public. They have the expertise. They have protocols," Salo said.
"I trust that the DOH is already implementing protocols on how we can be protected from this new strain of disease such as immediately undertaking contact-tracing, monitoring all those people she had contact with, limiting their interaction with other people and readying all DOH hospitals to receive patients with symptoms of the disease," he added.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, on the other hand, urged President Rodrigo Duterte to appoint Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as Vice Chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), so he can use the NDRRMC ecosystem just like in the 2009 AH1N1 epidemic episode.
"That gives him access to the entire government disaster response machinery and resources. The IATF or Interagency Task Force on Emerging Diseases is no longer sufficiently equipped with legislated and collegial authority to deal with the massive need for contact tracing, surveillance and containment to confront sudden onset or rapid onset of health hazards and to maintain public confidence and discourage dysfunctional public behavior which could overwhelm our national health system," Salceda said.
"This straightforward organizational strategy can be done rather quickly and empower DOH and allow it to move ahead of the curve of the public fears," he added. (PNA)
