The Inter-Agency Task Force for Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) should use the two-week modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to recalibrate its strategy in beating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senators made the call as they reiterated their support for the medical community’s call for the government to revert Metro Manila back to ECQ/MECQ so that health workers who are already exhausted and overwhelmed with the rise of COVID-19 cases in the country could recuperate.

“With the two-week MECQ, I hope the IATF uses this time to launch a massive granular information drive on the ground—with every street, every establishment, and every household covered. Communication is vital in a state of public health emergency, but until now barangays and families do not know the correct protocol: who to contact, what to do, where to go, and how to handle Covid cases that overwhelm them every day,” Senator Nancy Binay said in a statement.

“I support our health workers’ call for a timeout. They are already overwhelmed and exhausted. However tiny the window is, I also hope that the IATF opens a space for continuous dialogue with our doctors and health workers,” the senator stressed. “Government can optimize the ‘timeout’ to reassess, recalibrate its strategies, set plans, and treat the interim as an opportunity to correct mistakes and miscues,” she further said.

Sen. Joel Villanueva echoed Binay’s call, saying the IATF should have been in constant communication with the medical community so there would be no disconnect between policy and practice.

“We have high hopes that the continued dialogue between the medical community and the IATF will yield significant changes in the way we have been addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. This should have been done regularly considering they are the ones in the trenches, seeing how the disease is affecting our people first hand,” Villanueva said also in a separate statement.

As chair of the Senate committee on labor and employment, he also urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to continue inspecting offices and companies if they are complying with the IATF’s health and safety standards.

“We are calling on the DOLE again to continue its labor inspections to ensure that offices and other companies are observing minimum health standards,” Villanueva said.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the government should also use the MECQ phase to improve existing processes in the fight against COVID-19 like using technology—instead of rumormongers—for contact tracing.

The IATF should also utilize the Internet and the cloud for accurate and timely data reporting on COVID; set up more field hospitals in local government units (LGUs) for mild patients; isolate, even the rich, COVID positives in isolation centers, and use technology and e-payments for the distribution of the government’s social amelioration package or (SAP).

“If we do not automate and improve our processes, we will be back to square one again after Aug. 18. The spread of the virus is faster than how we react to stop it,” Gatchalian said on his Twitter account.

Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public services, said LGUs and national agencies should be ready to help workers transition anew to MECQ by being ready to ferry essential employees to their place of work and back home amid limited public transportation.

“We hope private firms can also consider hiring jeepneys as service contractors so they can have a source of income,” Poe said.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) should also be ready to assist public utility vehicle drivers who would not be able to take home any income during the period and “the greater majority of drivers who have yet to get back on the road for over five months.”

“Employers who can spare few more cash may opt to give allowance to their workers who will not receive pay without work. We also appeal to mall owners to heed anew the call for compassion in this time of crisis by waiving the rent during the period of MECQ,” Poe said.

“The lockdown is a temporary hump to businesses about to take off which we need to hurdle together to preserve lives and livelihood,” she added.