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'Shift from home quarantine to isolation lowers COVID-19 infections,' says Galvez
'Shift from home quarantine to isolation lowers COVID-19 infections,' says Galvez
One contributing factor to the flattening of the COVID-19 curve in the country is the stoppage of the practice of home quarantine in areas with the most number of infections, the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 disclosed Tuesday.
NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said a total of 24,538 COVID-positive patients were brought to 49 mega quarantine centers and hotels under "Oplan Kalinga" as of September 14.
Oplan Kalinga is a government intervention program which aims to keep the infected individuals in isolation facilities instead of staying at home.
By keeping the 24,538 infected individuals in isolation facilities, Galvez said the country prevented an exponentional growth of COVID-19 cases by three to four times, or an equivalent to 73,614 to 98,152 potential new cases.
"Kung hindi natin ito natanggal sa NCR, Region 3 at Region 4A, hindi bababa ang active cases. Napakaklaro sa datos eh (If we did not do it in the National Capital Region, Region 3 , and Region 4A , the active cases will not go down. It is clearly shown in the details)," he said.
Galvez cited as an example that the 80,000 active cases on August 14 went down to 53,000 this month.
As of September 14, data from the Department of Health showed that there were 53,754 active cases in the country.
In NCR, the chief implementer said the number of active cases went down by 35 percent several weeks after Oplan Kalinga was implemented in July.
In Cebu City, which experienced a surge of infections in July, Galvez said the active cases also went down when they extracted 1,900 positive patients from their homes and brought them to isolation facilities.
"Ngayon ang Cebu nasa MGCQ na (Right now, Cebu City is placed under the modified gener community quarantine)," he said, referring to one of the most lenient quarantine statuses.
"Nakikita natin ang direct correlation of active cases in addressing isolation . Ang primary role ng contact tracing at testing is to isolate immediately. Kung hindi ma-isolate agad, para tayong nagsasayang ng pera sa testing and tracing (We are seeing a direct correlation of the number of active cases in ddressing isolation issues. The primary role of the contact tracing and testing is to isolate immediately. If they are not isolated right away, we're just wasting our money in testing and tracing)," he stressed.
However, the Department of Health (DOH) has maintained that home quarantine can still be practiced as long as stringent measures are observed.
It includes a separate room and comfort room, among others, for the patient.
Meanwhile, under the newly-signed Bayanihan to Recover As One Act or "Bayanihan 2," around P4.5 billion were allotted for the construction of temporary medical isolation and quarantine facilities, hospitals, and dormitories for medical frontliners.
The NTF, according to Galvez, made an arrangement with the Department of Tourism (DOT) to use two- and three-star hotels as isolation facilities for infected patients and returning oversease Filipino workers (OFWs).
On the other hand, the four- to five-star hotels will be used in the resumption of “staycation” and other leisure activities.
"Sa P4.5 billion, na-compute namin na pwedeng mag-isolate sa hotels ng 128,000 COVID-positive (With the P4.8 billion, we computed that we will be able to isolate 128,000 COVID-positive patients in the hotels)," Galvez said.