📷: inquirer.net
THE government doesn’t seem to have learned the lesson from the pandemic which nearly collapsed the Philippine economy.
At the World Disasters Report Forum in Makati, a former Senator cited the need for the government to strengthen public health emergencies and disaster preparedness amid an escalated figure of infections brought about by a new coronavirus strain referred to as “Flirt” variant.
No less than Philippine Red Cross Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Gordon gave a premium to the efforts of the PRC in addressing the pandemic and natural disasters.
Citing figures, former Sen. Gordon hinted at the urgency of government preparedness just in case health emergencies strike again, alluding how the PRC struggled in finding supplies for facemasks and personal protective equipment (PPE) during the earlier stage of the COVID-19 which came a month after the Taal Volcano eruption.
“That time there was a volcano erupting so all of our masks went to the people of Batangas. So we’re running out of masks,” he recalled.
“70,000 people died, that’s too much. But if you are prepared, people know how to avoid it. Our volunteers in the barangay make sure that they have masks and when they see someone coughing they should report it and tell them to go to the doctor or the doctor will go there,” the former senator added, even as he insisted that preparedness should also include typhoons and earthquakes.
“We should be able to predict, plan, prepare, practice, as well as. 4P’s – predict, plan, prepare, practice,” Gon said in reference to the PRC’s practice embarking on the so-called 4Ps under which volunteers are trained to provide basic first aid during emergencies.
“We even have fancy cars called VERV, volunteer emergency response vehicles coming from one town to the other to send in volunteer reinforcements, ” he boasted.
“All the requirements from blood to rescue trucks where you can have lights operating at night in case there’s an earthquake. All that we’ve been doing throughout the years.”
Previously, the Department of Health insisted that there is no cause for alarm amid the Flirt variant which according to them is a comparatively tamer version of the other COVID-19 mutated strains.
Government data showed an infection rate of around 500 cases per day. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
