Popcom says ”impossible”to achieve social distancing in small spaces

April 16, 2020

The Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) on Thursday said it is “impossible” to achieve social physical distancing for residents living in small spaces,especially in the National Capitol Region which has many urban poor communities.

In a statement, Undersecretary Juan Perez III who heads Popcom, said to effectively achieve physical distancing, most authorities require a minimum standard of 6  square meter  per person.

By providing these characteristics  from the Census of Population and Housing of 2010 and using the latest population projections of 2020 that are both from the Philippine Statistics Authority, local chief executives can prioritize communities with large numbers of houses smaller than 20  sq. m.  in area and with about four household members living there , which only provides living space of only 5 sq. m.  or less per person.

Perez said in National Capital Region alone, 3.785 million, or 27.2 percent of its 13.867 million population, live in 812,584 housing units under 20  sq. m.

“With an average number of 4.7 persons in each household, that leaves a living space of only 4.25 sq. m. per person, which makes it nearly impossible to achieve physical distancing,” he pointed out.

Focusing on single-detached houses of less than 20.0 sq. m., excluding condominiums, Perez said the poorest in Metro Manila, which belongs to 2.066 million or 14.9 percent of NCR’s population, reside in detached spaces of less than 20  sq. m.

“In this type of housing, the average number of persons in a household increases to 4.9; therefore, the living space goes down to 4  sq. m. per person,” Perez said.

Perez revealed that a significant number of senior citizens are residents of houses with living spaces of less than 20  sq. m., who are at greater risk of acquiring the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

He said 84,726 of them live with other household members with an average size of 4.9 while another 51,365 live alone in NCR, apart from any family member.

As such, they are isolated and may be unable to move around in an enhanced community quarantine setting, he said.

“These particular senior citizens may need special assistance from local government officials at the barangay or higher levels of governance,” Perez emphasized.

With the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approval, Popcom will provide all of the 42,044 barangays nationwide on their vulnerabilities based on living spaces and the number of senior citizens living in COVID-19-susceptible conditions.

“This information will lead to a greater understanding by local chief executives of their communities’ vulnerabilities, because of the difficulty to achieve physical distancing,” Perez said.

 “They can prioritize barangays for contact tracing using their health and population staff members whenever confirmed cases are discovered. This can trigger targeted testing of close contacts, suspects and probable cases, as well as senior citizens or persons with co-morbidities in their vicinity,” he added.

Perez also confirmed that, within the third week of April, Popcom will be able to complete its analysis for all barangays in the country as it is  coordinating with the Department of Health (DOH), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) as well as the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to obtain  information for transmission to the local government units.

Popcom’s Demographic Vulnerabilities Tool (DVT) was developed as a “new weapon against the pandemic virus that can be used in every local government unit of the country,” said Perez.

The DVT is based on the analysis of four important characteristics of every barangay during a pandemic which includes the number of houses measuring less than 20 square meters in the barangay, the number of individuals living in a house, the number of individuals 60 years of age and older living in houses less than 20 sq. m.; and the number of individuals 60 years of age and older living alone. Ella Dionisio/DMS