Aside from food and non-food assistance, residents in Abra province are in dire need of psychosocial support to recover from the trauma caused by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake last week.
The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) convened in a hybrid (in-person and via Zom) setup on Tuesday, August 2, and appealed for various assistance to hasten the recovery of Abra.
“We need psychosocial processing for the earthquake victims because aftershocks are still being felt. There are teams from the Department of Health (DOH) in other regions that already came in to help,” said Cordillera RDRRMC Chairperson Albert Mogol.
Dr. Rio Magpantay, director of DOH-CAR Center for Health Development (CHD), said the medical teams from other regions were deployed at the Abra Provincial Hospital and in various evacuation centers to assist the victims.
“We have 44 partially functional and 21 non-functional health facilities. May medical teams at mga espesyalista galling sa bang regions na pumunta doon for mental health and psychosocial support from other regions (There were medical teams and specialists from other regions that went there for mental health and psychosocial support),” Magpantay said.
The lack of clean water also yield concerns about the possible spread of Covid-19 and even monkeypox in the evacuation centers.
“We have wash concerns here. We have problems on water and toilets. To address this, we are providing portalets to the evacuees,” Magpantay noted.
“We have Covid-19 cases in Abra but we also have an isolation facility. And there’s the concern on monkeypox which was declared as a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO . So it is important... and we will make sure that monkeypox will not reach Abra,” he added.
Aside from this, the CAR-RDRRMC also continued to appeal for food, drinking water, and construction materials for the victims.
Based on the latest report of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the magnitude 7.0 quake that hit Tayum, Abra last July 27 has already affected 105,241 families or 404,370 individuals in three regions – CAR, Ilocos (Region 1), and Cagayan Valley (Region 2).
Ten people were killed and 394 others were injured. The damage to infrastructure has ballooned to P1.25 billion while agricultural losses reached P15.24 million in CAR alone.