Senators on Friday, July 23, urged the Duterte administration to “level up” its pandemic response following the confirmed local transmission of the highly infectious COVID-19 Delta variant in the country.

Senator Joel Villanueva said the government must shore up the ranks of medical frontliners and ensure that the healthcare system would not collapse should the Delta variant cause another uptick in COVID-19 cases nationwide.

“The staff complement of government facilities should be raised to war level. Most are running on manpower best suited for ‘peace time’ conditions, not during this pandemic. Kailangan na pong mag-level up (We need to level-up),” Villanueva said in a statement.

He said the Department of Health (DOH) can tap into the 5,008 new nurses and 1,234 doctors who recently passed their respective licensure examinations. 

Senator Nancy Binay said the DOH must prepare for the possibility that health workers would get infected with the Delta variant, even if they are fully vaccinated.

Vaccines – regardless of their brand – work against hospitalization and even death, but vaccinated individuals can still be infected with COVID-19.

“With the potential brunt of the Delta variant, dalawang bagay sa ngayon ang kailangan bigyan ng focus ng gobyerno (there are two things the government should focus on): stricter border controls, and save the healthcare support system from a possible collapse,” Binay said.

The DOH has to prepare for the possibility of our fully vaccinated healthcare workers acquiring the Delta variant,” she added.

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Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senator Win Gatchalian also called for a stricter ban on public gatherings which are potential super spreader events for the Delta variant. 

“Puwede naman pong GCQ ang ating classification pero maghigpit tayo sa mga mass gatherings. Aminado po akong mahalagang ituloy natin ang economic recovery ng ating bansa, but it is equally important to make sure that our people are safe from the virus,” Sotto said. 

(We can still have GCQ as our classification but let us be stricter with mass gatherings. I am aware that we must continue the country’s economic recovery, but it is equally important to make sure our people are safe from the virus.)

Gatchalian said that while it may be “too early” to reimpose modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) – one level away from the strictest ECQ or lockdown – the government should not let its guard down. 

“I suggest to restrict any form of mass gatherings, events, convergence because these activities are proven to be vectors of the spread of the virus,” said Gatchalian. 

The Philippines now has 47 cases of the more virulent COVID-19 variant – 23 of them local cases, meaning they likely got infected while in the country and not from someone who came from overseas. 

The national government has imposed slightly tighter quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila, Ilocos Sur, and Ilocos Norte amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in these areas from July 23 to 31.

The Philippines has already imposed a travel ban on several countries as Delta variant cases have been spreading rapidly in these areas. They include Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Thailand. – Rappler.com.