Año urges task force on COVID-19 to stop spread of local transmission

March 8, 2020

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Sunday urged the Local COVID-19 Task Force of NCR to work double-time to ensure further spread of the virus will be halted after the Department of Health ( DOH) confirmed the presence of local transmission.

"Local transmissions pose greater chances for the virus to spread and that's the last thing we want to happen. That’s why I directed the LGUs of NCR to activate their LCTF or Local COVID-19 Task Force to prevent the situation from escalating," Año said in a statement.

According to the DOH, the 4th COVID case in the country is a 48-year-old male, with travel history to Tokyo while the 5th and 6th case is a Filipino couple who have no travel history.

The couple is the first reported local transmission in the country. 

The task force shall direct the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and Local City Health Office, upon receiving the referrals from the DOH-Emergency Operations Center, to coordinate directly with, and convey or transport, the symptomatic persons to the nearest DOH referral facility for COVID-19 testing.

The DOH also declared Code Red sublevel 1, a pre-emptive call to ensure that national and local government, as well as public and private health care providers can prepare for possible increase in suspected and confirmed cases.

Año said at the DOH referral facility, symptomatic persons will immediately undergo triage which will determine if a person is a severe or mild case.

If found to be a mild case, the ambulance will be directed to bring the patient confirmed as Persons under Investigation (PUIs) to the nearest DOH-designated hospital for treatment and isolation or will be admitted, if found to be severe cases.

He assured that the task force shall always be on top of all related situations and concerns, and coordinate closely with the DOH-Center for Health Development.

The DILG has also directed all DILG city directors to coordinate closely with their local chief executives (LCEs). Meanwhile, LCEs are ordered to work closely with the DOH regional office.

"It is only through cooperation and vigilance can we guarantee that this virus will not be a greater threat in our country," the secretary said.

Meanwhile, Año said 60.51 percent or 25,411 barangays have organized their Barangay Health Emergency Response Team which can help control further community transmissions of COVID-19 in the barangays.

He added that now that there is a verified local transmission case in the country, establishment of response teams in barangays can help the government in monitoring and containing the virus.

"Sixty point fifty-one percent or 25,411 of the total number of barangays nationwide is already a huge number but we are talking about a virus that has wreaked panic worldwide that’s why we will not stop reminding the barangays to immediately activate their BHERTs," he said.

Based on the latest data of the DILG-National Barangay Operations Office, Bicol Region registered 100 percent compliance rate translating to a total of 3,471 barangays with organized teams.

Central Luzon trails closely with 99.42 percent corresponding to 3,084 barangays. Soccsksargen and Caraga also registered high compliance rate with 96.9 percent and 90.47 percent, respectively.

Western Visayas was able to establish response teams in 3,615 barangays registering a 89.24 percent compliance rate followed by Central Visayas with 83.85 percent; Calabarzon with 81.19 percent; 78 percent for the National Capital Region; Zamboanga region with 63.71 percent; 52.74 percent for Mimaropa; and 35.29 percent and 5.29 percent for Ilocos Region and Northern Mindanao.

The DILG is still waiting for the reports coming from Cagayan Region, Eastern Visayas, Davao Region, Cordillera Autonomous Region and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Part of the response teams' responsibility is to monitor the community through home visitation of arriving passengers from a coronavirus-infected country within the locality, ensuring that all residents are accounted for.

The Punong Barangay must appoint response team members composed of an executive officer, a barangay tanod, and two barangay health workers, one of them a nurse or a midwife.

Año said there is no need for a lockdown now in the areas where COVID-19 cases were confirmed.

“We are still at Code Red sublevel 1 right now. We will intensify contact tracing surrounding the three latest positive cases and impose mandatory home quarantine,” he said.

The secretary said the LGU will play an active role in the current situation.

“We will also put on watch all persons with severe acute respiratory infections who might be possible candidates. With this, all hospitals nationwide have been directed by DOH to be alert and ready with their isolation or quarantine facilities and facilitate transfer of patients to DOH designated Corona Virus referral centers,” he said.

“The declaration of Public Health Emergency will facilitate appropriate agencies to access immediate and sufficient funds particularly for LGUs, ease processes on procurement. The declaration also would impose mandatory reporting and mandatory quarantine of suspected persons associated with positive patients,” he added. Ella Dionisio/DMS