When the Philippine government took Coronavirus disease (COVID) -19 as a real threat, among the first few directives of President Rodrigo Duterte is to mandate the local government units (LGUs) to take charge. So, apart from ensuring the social and economic aspects of the pandemic, local government units are also in-charged with health-related functions.
The President's mandate is just consistent with the Local Government Code particularly the devolution of some government's tasks and functions. Unfortunately, while these tasks and functions are real, the resources necessary remains largely in the national government. Even then, there are LGUs that are innovative enough to perform what is expected of them.
The primary health-related tasks under the COVID-19 pandemic and the LGU performers are as follows:
1. Prevention of the spread of Coronavirus. There is no vaccine against COVID-19 yet so prevention of its spread is dependent on everyone's cooperation particularly in maintaining physical distancing, observance of proper hygiene, taking in healthy diet, isolation and treatment of infected people, and the like. These, however, will be realized through sufficient information and education campaigns (IECs). To do these, the Municipality of Irosin, Sorosogon, along with some groups in the Bicol Region such as Mag-Bikol Kita, translated information materials being from the Department of Health (DOH) into the local dialect. This facilitated the materials that were distributed in English.
Some LGUs like the Municipality of Banna in Ilocos Norte empowered civil society organizations while barangays in the cities of Zamboanga and Legazpi cooperated with able-bodied Sangguniang Kabataan members to do IECs on COVID-19 and related regulations. Others, with the help of the SKs, took the task of disseminating information through the social media. Hence, the proliferation of barangay Facebook pages teeming with information materials and announcements during community quarantine. Others, like the City of Cabadbaran, combined it with a traditional approach -- that is, through a city government paid radio program where the information are not only translated into the local dialect but also distributed through the traditional media to be able to reach those without mobile phones and internet connection.
2. Identification of infected individuals. This task has two equally important pillars -- COVID-19 testing, and contact tracing.
2.1. COVID-19 testing is key in identifying who is infected and who is not. As such, civil society organizations have been advocating for massive, if not mass, testing ever since the start of the pandemic. However, because the DOH lacks the capacity to implement this, richer local government units like the cities of Marikina and Valenzuela decided to establish their own testing centers. Other LGUs followed Marikina's example. Those that cannot afford like Legazpi City made donations to accredited testing centers in order to be prioritized.
To ramp up testing, most LGUs resorted to the use of Rapid Anti-Body Tests (RATs) or Serology Anti-Body Tests. The City of Manila even established "drive-thru" and "walk-in" testing centers. The former is like buying food like Jollibee and McDonalds -- that is, getting tested without leaving your vehicle.
There are studies showing that RATs cannot be used to screen for or detect active infections COVID-19 so LGUs would want to use reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. However, RTPCR tests are expensive and usually takes 24-48 hours before the results are released. So, Makati City resorted to pooled testing method. Under this method, the swab sample of a group of individuals are put into a single RT-PCR test. If the result becomes negative, the group will not anymore be tested. Otherwise, a new and individual testing will be done. With this method, RT-PCR COVID-19 testing becomes affordable and accessible.
2.2. Contact tracing is another important component of the task to identify COVID-19 infected individuals. While mass testing is ideal, it requires a lot of resources which may not be feasible given budget limitations. Besides, testing results is only valid for a particular time and must therefore be done periodically.
Leading the LGUs in this aspect is Baguio City which combined the forces of health workers, the Philippine National Police and the community for the contact tracing. Pasay City is also being recognized in this area with the introduction of the One Country 100, a "patient management system with conrtact tracing capability".
To be continued >>>
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