More lawmakers hailed the creation of a technical working group (TWG) by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) that would focus on the new COVID-19 variants.
(KALINGA PARTYLIST / MANILA BULLETIN)
Kalinga party-list Rep. Irene Gay Saulog, a member of the House Minority bloc, described as “laudable” the decision of the IATF to form the panel, which is composed of medical experts.
“Kalinga Party-list welcomes the IATF's creation of the TWG that will focus on the new COVID-19 variants. It was a laudable move to appoint as heads those from the medical and scientific community. They possess the requisite knowledge and expertise in addressing the new development in the pandemic,” she said in a Viber message.
“This action alone will not prevent the entry of the new COVID-19 variants to the country. It is, however, a good starting point in the country's response. A specialized body that will be focused on a mission critical objective,” Saulog said.
She welcomed the earlier findings of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Genome Center that the COVID-19 variant from the United Kingdom has not yet reached the country.
“Hopefully, the newly formed TWG will help keep it this way,” she said.
Quezon City 2nd District Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development and House Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Relations and Diplomacy, also cited the government’s effort to prevent the entry of the new COVID-19 variants.
The House Assistant Majority Leader even expressed the readiness of the Lower Chamber to extend assistance to the TWG, chaired by Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire and co-chaired by Executive Director Jaime Montoya of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.
“We are ready to provide special funding, logistics and resources for the task force to succeed,” Castelo said.
Sitting as panel members are Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) Director Dr. Celia Carlos; Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco-dela Paz, executive director of University of the Philippines-Manila National Institutes of Health; Dr. Anna Ong-Lim, Dr. Marissa Alejandria and Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana of the Department of Health-Technical Advisory Group (DOH-TAG); Dr. Cynthia Saloma of the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center; and Dr. John Wong of Epimetrics, Inc.
The TWG is tasked to determine whether the new variant, which is believed to be more infectious, has reached the country.