COVID-19 cases in the Philippines continue to escalate despite having the strictest and longest lockdown in the country. The world reported nearly 5,000 positive cases on August 1, 2020, its highest count since the pandemic started in February 2020. This takes the cumulative number of cases to 98,232, of which 2,039 have already died.
As the Philippines is experiencing a new series of quarantine procedures for the first half of August 2020, 60 medical groups have demanded a time-out and have tried to return the Philippine capital, Metro Manila, to a more restrictive fortified community quarantine, citing two key reasons for their appeal for a renewed lockdown. They claim that the nation's capital's health care infrastructure has hit a crucial level. "The healthcare system has been overwhelmed, given the "apparently infinite number of patients trooping" to hospitals for emergency care and admission." As a result, they state that exhaustion and depression have been endured by health care professionals as they can no longer bear the burden of deciding who lives and who dies."
Through all their wealth and power, considering the shortage of supplies and government funding, they looked out for the general welfare of our people. Our frontliners are underpaid and do not get the recognition they deserve, in addition to the absence of personal protective equipment. Although facing terror and anxiety, they respond to the call of duty. They also feel distressed, tension, insomnia, denial, frustration, and anxiety, aside from this. Naturally, this is on top of persistent exposure to the virus! "In other countries, medical workers' psychological intervention plans have already been implemented through "counseling and psychotherapy focused on stress-adaptation models" Across the globe, however, frontliners may still suffer in the pandemic from "post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and drug use disorders. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, shift exhaustion was still encountered by health workers. It was further magnified by the present epidemic.
The Philippine government has declined the call from the medical organizations at the time of this article. Some government officials have insisted that because Metro Manila would be a living experiment" a lockdown is no longer necessary; medical staff can just do better jobs." Such government insensitivity neglects the humanity and integrity of the frontliners who are under duress and are simply pursuing relief from the recent COVID-19 landslide. The Philippines should benefit from the way Spain and Italy handled their health workers' distress calls in March 2020. As WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus observed, "Even if we do everything else right, many people will die because the health workers who could have saved their lives are sick if we don't prioritize protecting health workers."
Given the populace’s negative reaction to the government’s lackluster performance, it is our vision that these queries may serve as a way to develop the government’s performance; in case that events such as the pandemic occur once more.
We made it our mission to acquire a better understanding of the mistakes and the diminutive success, the Government was able to produce in the time that the Pandemic was in full bloom. And to maintain and sustain the capability and determination of our frontliners to serve up to the near future.
BACKGROUND
