President Rodrigo Duterte has approved in principle an allocation of P2.25-billion budget for the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) of 5,000 healthcare workers to be used against the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

“This is going to be on the assumption that this will last for 90 days or 3 months, multiplied by three shifts because the care will have to be round the clock, cannot be just for 8 hours,” Duque told the Senate Committee on Health’s hearing on the country’s preparedness on the nCoV outbreak.

Each set of gear costs P1,500 and includes goggles, mask, gloves, head gear, and apron. He cited the need for health workers to be protected so they won’t infect others.

Duque also said Duterte also approved the procurement of P10-million worth of surgical masks as part of the government’s bid to contain the virus.

The health chief also said the President wanted isolation rooms in both public and private hospitals should there be more persons who will be infected.

“To make sure that there will be a regular inventory of isolation rooms not only in the public sector health care facilities but equally important, the private sector isolation rooms must also be ready,” Duque said.

Duque further said transport vehicles solely dedicated for the novel virus patients were also underscored by the President.

“To ensure that there will be a dedicated transport vehicle to ferry patients from the communities assuming that there is going to be a community spread,” he said.

“That’s why the President has underscored the importance of a dedicated transport vehicle and not use other ambulances for transport for fear of contamination,” he said.

He said Duterte highlighted the need to “scale up” diagnostic capacities of the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) as well as all laboratories of private hospitals for the testing of the novel coronavirus

The President on Monday night held an emergency meeting with top government officials, including the World Health Organization (WHO), to discuss measures to contain the deadly virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative to the President Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe reminded the public that the use surgical masks by the general public is not recommended amid fears that the new virus would spread in the Philippines.

Speaking in the same hearing, Abeyasinghe said that they do not “see the benefit of masks to be used by general public.”

“People who are having respiratory symptoms or who are in crowded places could be wearing those masks. But it would be preferable to reserve those masks for high-risk individuals and health workers,” he said.

Senator Richard J. Gordon proposed stockpiling on strategic medical supplies to ensure adequate supply in the country to survive epidemics or pandemics caused by emerging and re-emerging diseases such as the novel coronavirus.

Gordon, chairman and CEO of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said the government could also encourage local investors to venture into the production of medical supplies such as face masks, medical gowns and other protective gear to ensure that the high demand for them, during public health emergencies, would be met.

“Other countries, like the United States, spend billions for a secret stockpile of supplies, food, medicines, and vaccines, among others,” he said.

Gordon said this would ensure that there would be adequate supply of food, medicine, vaccines and other necessary supplies to tide them over until the emergency ends.

“We should also invest in warehouses in strategic areas across the country where they could be prepositioned,” he said during a committee hearing on the 2019-nCoV.

The Red Cross maintains warehouses in different parts of the country where stockpiles of food and non-food items such as face masks, gloves, other personal protective gear, sleeping kits and hygiene kits, among others, along with response vehicles are prepositioned for easier mobilization.

As of Tuesday, the death toll has climbed to 425 with the total number of cases pegged at 20,438./ STACY ANG