Singer and It’s Showtime host Karylle wanted to know Indonesia’s secret on how the country mitigated its COVIDd-19 cases; thus, the Philippines could follow.
Her inquiry came when analyst Edson C. Guido posted the number of vaccines that arrived in the Philippines on Sunday, October 3.
https://twitter.com/EdsonCGuido/status/1444564654903103488
Karylle then asked Guido if he’s aware of the latest COVID-19 stats of Indonesia, saying that the Philippines need to follow the country’s strategy in lowering the number of infected.
Did you hear about the COVID stats in Indonesia. What are they doing right? We need to get us some of that action. It would be wise to learn from mistakes and big victories.
— karylle (@anakarylle) October 3, 2021
Indonesia’s strategy.
Given the fact that Indonesia was among the countries, who got severely affected by COVID-19], it may have found the secret in keeping the infections down and the death toll to a minimum.
The country on October 1 had only 1,624 recorded new cases with only 87 deaths. The next day, it went down to 1,414 but increased in the number of deaths at 89.
Some of this decline maybe because of the country’s initiative to take appropriate measures.
Indonesia has begun to amass more vaccines from China. On September 24, Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and the Republic of China donated 1 million each of Sinovac vaccine doses to Indonesia.
New Zealand also extended its help to Indonesia as it plans to donate 680,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Indonesia through COVAX in October.
To add, Singapore also donated 120,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Batam and the Riau Islands in Indonesia on September 28.
Not only has Indonesia acquired a large number of vaccines, but it also combats vaccine hesitancy through its leading officials. Furthermore, the country also bolstered its testing and tracing capacities.
Philippines’ strategy.
Meanwhile, the Philippines, on September 27, logged 18,449 new cases,
with 93 deaths.
That same day, Education Secretary Leonor Briones announced that the country would pilot face-to-face classes at 120 schools across the country despite the constant rise of COVID-19 infected.
Earlier on September 28, the Philippines finally approved the vaccination of children as young as 12 years old as long as 50 percent of the adult population has received at least one dose, which according to the Duterte Administration, would be reached mid-October.
Pres. Duterte also allowed the vaccination of the general population beginning in October since the country was only vaccinating select sectors due to supply constraints.
The strategy implemented by the Philippines was to have granular lockdowns, which government officials believed to be working.
“We believe we adopted the right strategy to have granular lockdowns and while we are piloting it in the NCR (National Capital Region), the number of cases has gone down, so it is working. So everyone should cooperate to make this strategy more (doable),” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua said last September 30.
He then added that they will be using a “more targeted approach” in controlling the coronavirus.
“It does not mean we are already safe. This means our strategy of balancing the risk between COVID and non-COVID is working.
“So we will continue with our strategy, we use granular lockdowns and we use a more targeted approach to control COVID especially in closed spaces, those with close contact and those without ventilation.”
This Monday, October 4, the Philippines recorded 10,748 new cases, with 362 deaths, reaching its total confirmed cases to 2,580,173 and a total death toll of 38,656.
The Philippines has fewer confirmed cases and number of deaths compared to Indonesia—4,218,142 total cases and 142,115 total deaths.
