PH urged to continue testing, focus on high-priority sectors

Countries undergoing massive COVID-19 quarantines like the Philippines need to continue testing and focus their attention on industries that will allow immediate recovery once these lockdowns were lifted, the World Bank said.“As we think about emerging from the lockdown, what will be important is that people get back to work pretty quickly, that they stay safe, they find ways within their community or within their nation to be tested and to be aware of the distance needed under these new conditions, but also that they focus on high-priority sectors to begin to reopen,” World Bank Group president David Malpass said in response to a question sent by the Inquirer during a virtual press conference on Friday night.

“As we think about the Philippines or Indonesia—these are massive island-countries with diversity of systems, of cultures, of people, of ethnicity, that all need something different as we think about emerging from the crisis. Allowing that to happen, that diversity to happen in a way that is consistent with the laws of the country, but allow people to move quickly back into productive output, I think that’s the way to go,” Malpass added.

“Inspiring confidence will be one of the biggest challenges for governments: to speak carefully, forcefully and with confidence about the value of people, the value of the assets of the country, the sectors that can be profitable—all of that is going to be very important,” Malpass said.

The Philippine government is crafting a bounce-back plan based on feedback from businesses and consumers alike who had been surveyed about what they deemed necessary to rebuild confidence once the postpandemic “new normal” sets in.

This upcoming economic recovery plan to create jobs and sustain growth is the final leg of the Philippines’ four-pillar socioeconomic strategy against the new virus.

The government has extended until April 30 the enhanced community quarantine imposed in Luzon and other parts of the country from an original one-month lockdown that started in mid-March.So far, there is no decision yet if the lockdown will actually be lifted in end-April or if another extension may be warranted to contain the disease from spreading.

In a report titled “How Two Tests Can Help Contain COVID-19 and Revive the Economy,” World Bank economists Damien de Walque, Jed Friedman, Roberta Gatti and Aaditya Mattoo said that “if countries like the Philippines could build at least some capacity to test soon, they may begin to consider an eventual phaseout of restrictions without fear of the disease escalating or recurring.”

Referring to the two COVID-19 tests, namely the polymerase chain reaction assay and the antibody test, the World Bank said that in general, “the expansion of both types of testing, and incorporation in transmission control strategies, may yield significant returns.”

The World Bank Board is set to approve this week the $100-million COVID-19 emergency response project to be implemented by the Department of Health, which projections of the Washington-based lender claimed would reduce coronavirus deaths in the Philippines by a tenth and save over 16,700 Filipinos.The loan will support “provision of medical and laboratory equipment and reagents, medical supplies, including PPEs (personal protective equipment) and medicines” on top of providing “enhancing isolation facilities as well as strengthening laboratory capacity,” World Bank documents read.

The World Bank had also approved the $500-million Third Risk Management Development Policy Loan for the Philippines, which would partly “support urgent needs created by the COVID-19 crisis.” —BEN O. DE VERA INQ