 Magandang-magandang tanghali po sa inyong lahat and for those who are watching us outside of the Philippines, good morning, good afternoon, good evening po sa inyong lahat. Welcome to the 66th installment of the Stop COVID Deaths webinar series and we are glad that you are able to join us today and that you continue to spread the word about our credible online community as we bring you more timely and informative topics in our COVID-19 learning journey together. So as the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has really swept across the globe and makes its way to the Philippines, actually nandito na nga po, the very first case of the Lambda variant over the weekend po ay na-report. Ang mga katanungan po over the weekend also ay tapat po ba tayong kabahan? Ano po ba ang dapat po namin karagdagan gawin? May ibabo ba ang kaming dapat nagawin? Bukod po sa mga regular na namin ginagawa. So for today's episode of Stop COVID Deaths, we will give you all of the latest evidence-based information about the COVID-19 variants and an update also about the vaccines. I'm Dr. Raymond Francis Sarmiento from the National Institutes of Health, University of Philippines Manila as director of the National Telehealth Center. It's a pleasure to be with all of you during our regular Friday lunch date and always looking forward po in co-hosting this credible online community webinar po natin with my partner and my mentor po our Adjunct Research Faculty at the National Telehealth Center and also the Special Envoy of the President for Global Health Initiatives, Dr. Susie Pineda Mercado. Dr. Susie. Hello Raymond, good afternoon. Magantang hapon po sa inyong lahat po. Sanman kayo na Ron, I hope you're doing okay. I hope you're fine. I hope your families are all okay. This is our credible online community and I think when the Lambda variant news came out, we said, oh, we have to talk about that because it's new. We want to make sure that all of you, our frontliners have access to really the most credible experts that somehow meron tayong pangkontra sa disinformation and the only way to do that is for us to really be vigilant in sharing the right information, which is what we try to do in this webinar. So I'd like to welcome everyone from all over the Philippines. Natutuan naman ako, parang nakikilalo. So binabati ko kayo yung mga maagab pangapaso. Binabati ko sa chat. So there's a bit of a time and I really appreciate all those who are regular listeners. If it's not for you kung di po sa inyo sa atling audience, wala po kami rito. We are here for you to serve you and I hope that today we are going to learn a lot. But we have to start, I think, Raymond, by finding out what people think about this lambda variant. Go ahead, Raymond. Thank you so much, Dr. Suzy, for those who are watching us, you already know that we are being livestreamed sa ating social media pages, specifically in the YouTube channel of TV UP, as well as the Facebook pages of the University of the Philippine System, TV UP, and the Stop COVID Dets of Facebook page. So please let us know if you are doing anything of the sort in relation po to the watch parties. We would like to know kung ilan po ang mga sabay-sabay na nonoog po sa ating webinar number 66 for today and to put our discussion into context. TV UP has prepared a very short video to capture the pulse on the street po. TV UP. Sa Peru versus South America. Parang gina-deal na lang, danang namin na disaim na siya sa Delta, pero mas worse, payata ito. Nan-dito siya, like weeks ago. Kung mga nabasa po about nang dabayat categories sa nang WHO as a variant of interest. Maka-katakot po siyang marined na meron na po tayong ayong sa Pilipinas. Sa ba ganyan, hindi pa naman ako nababakonan, pero kung malibabakonan ako ka nawol, mag-wagori ka di sa lambda. Kasi ano siya, sabi daw, ito ay vaccine resistant. Dito sa amin to avoid at puma-iwasan talaga namin ang ano, sinusanod talaga namin yung mga protocols. May mga, may halong takot, pero may halodin pag-asap because I think that pharmaceutical companies would come up with an urgency na mag-garoon ng supplementary na bakuna for the lambda variant specifically. Ayun na takot kasi hindi mo alam ko hanggang staan para maprotect ang kanabakong vaccine to have a severe symptoms. Kahit mayroong magsulputan na iba-ibang variants rin ang pinakagawa natin na protection para sa atin at sa ating mga pamilya ang mga kasama sa buhay isyong magpabakuna. Sala alam, mas mapalawak yung vaccination ng government. Patalaga diyan lockdown, kaya ang kailangan diyan. Ayuda ng government. Kailangan lang talaga ng containment dun sa mga papasok na individuals from other countries. Hindi man natin alam may mga bagong variants na naman maglabasan di same pa rin ang precautions namin. Hindi ako sigura dun na magiging makakaraos tayo dito dahil nga dun sa mga nangyaring ganun. I make say na 50-50. Tingin ko malalipas na natin to mga pinagdadahan natin kung gundong nagtutulong-tulong yan para malunasa niyan. Ma-anon natin ang pandemic na kong pastal. Lahat tayo binagawa natin ang part natin. Aside from following all these rules, dapat intindingin natin ang may responsibility din tayo sa community natin, hindi lang yung pansarili at sa pamilya dito natin. It's always good to start with our person on the street and talaga Raymond ang ating mga nasa-odgents our frontliners are really very influential pagdating dun sa pagpapaliwanan na ano ba yung to-to-o, ano ba yung hindi to-to-o? So na pakahalaga na meron tayong usapang ganyto. So Raymond meron niya tayong mentimeter, yung ba yung announce ko? Okay. Yes. Let's put the mentimeter mentimeter code up please TVUP. All right. Here we go. So some of you really love the mentimeter yung mga nanunood na hindi po kayo sa Zoom na sa Facebook kayo. So you can already go to www.menti.com and the number is 11482304. So for today we have some fun questions that Raymond is going to feel later. 11482304. Yung mga nanunood naman on Zoom. You can just participate on Zoom that will come out for you. So I know some of you are looking forward to that. Over to you Raymond. Thank you, Dr. Sussi. It's been a few weeks since we had our mentimeter poll po. And it's as a regular thing. So very, very happy. I'm sure there are lots of folks who are looking forward to participating sa ating mentimeter for those who are also joining us for the very first time. Our structure is as follows. There will be essentially a round table discussion format to optimize the feedback and the insights that we will be getting from our panel of experts. We will have speakers who will be presenting which includes also a few reactors. And then followed by a panel discussion with a Q&A session and then we will be entertaining questions coming in from kaya po sa Zoom, sa Facebook or sa YouTube po nito. We could you can also tag us sa ating Twitter account if you're able to ask any questions and you're really someone who's following us in the Twitter. For those who are asking also we are continuing distributing the certificates of attendance for the previous webinars. It looks like meron po kami maximum capacity that could be sent out for each day na mga certificates so that's something that we're trying to manage right now. But at least for the previous 64 65 webinars partially we have already sent out the certificates of attendance and only those who have attended at least 50% of the webinar duration will be eligible to receive a copy of their A certificate. Okay, Dr. Susie. Hey, Monter kang ano ba? 66 na ba ito? Yes. Number 66. Malapit na tayong 70. Dr. Susie. We're here for 66 Fridays and we'll always be here. And there are people behind the scenes who really make this happen. And that's my little segue to introduce our our guest who will give us the opening remarks who in fact is a moving spirit one of the most important moving spirits behind stuck COVID deaths and we wouldn't have gotten to 66 without her. You've met her before and she's a communications expert. She is the vice president for public affairs of the University of the Philippine system and haligin ng stuck COVID deaths. So let me welcome our beloved Professor Elena Pernia or Nanny Pernia. Nanny, welcome to your webinar. Hi, thank you, Susie. I'm always here and I'm glad the month that we are still here 66 weeks and counting. Oh, hindi nyo alam. Yan si vice president Nanny Pernia. I laging laging kasama yan kasama siya sa planning kasama siya sa on the Fridays. And so it's just great to have this kind of support Nanny and I think on behalf of all of us we'd just like to to thank you for all the all the hardworking for stuck COVID deaths. Sige nga nga emote ko eh. Pag nga emote masyad. Pero marami tayo dito na nagtutulog-tulong so akore emote sa ating sa ating lahat nanandarito sa stuck COVID deaths. Pero game, okay nako, pag-opening nako. Sige. Okay. Every Friday for the past 65 weeks many of us have been tuning in to stop COVID deaths webinar our favorite noontime credible online resource about COVID-19. Many of you who are here in this online community are in the medical professions but there's a growing number of laypersons like me. Since the pandemic and the different levels of community quarantine that we have all lived under there have been a lot of things that we laypersons have learned about COVID-19. I'd like to run by some of them which I think are among the most important. So please doc Susie, doc Raymond, tell me if these are correct. One, everyone has to be vigilant. Wear a mask or double up. Wash your hands frequently. Keep safe physical distancing and importantly demonstrate kindness to others. Two, the virus can be spread in airborne particles that linger in the air which makes indoor and enclosed spaces riskier. So physical distancing and masking needs to be coupled with good ventilation. Three, don't panic about getting COVID-19 from packages that are delivered through logistics companies from the grocery and take out food but keep on washing your hands with soap and water or with alcohol. Four, young healthy people including children are not invulnerable to COVID-19. Five, superspreaders are a major threat. Six, the spectrum of COVID-19 runs the range from asymptomatic, mild, moderate, severe to critical. Seven, there is such a thing as long COVID and some can get infected more than once. Eight, misinformation is dangerous. Don't participate in its spread. False information often called fake news that are shared on social media platforms undermine scientific advice and are inimical to public health campaigns that aim to reduce the spread of COVID-19 virus. Nine, all viruses evolve over time. When a virus replicates it could change a bit and this is normal for a virus. These changes are called mutations or variants of the original virus. Ten, there are VOIs and VOCs, variants of interest and variants of concern which used to have alphanumeric names B117, B1617 and then they were later identified by the places where the earliest documented samples were found UK, South Africa, Brazil, India. But now, they are labeled following the Greek alphabet. Alpha, beta, gamma and delta are variants of concern while eta, ayota, kapa, lambda are variants of interest. Mahabapa ang Greek alphabet baka dumami din ang variants. For the ordinary person who has been on some level of lockdown for a year and a half now, the questions in our minds include will the pandemic ever end? What's the likelihood that the virus and its variants will disappear altogether or is the reality that there will be even more mutations? So we put our face in modern technology and the rapid pace of COVID-19, vaccine development and administration to shorten the length of this pandemic. Isa pa. Sabi nung aming COVID communication campaign, bakuna is love. Dahil mahal ko kayo, magpapabakuna ako. It looks like Pope Francis saw our campaign because he agrees. Sabi niya, being vaccinated is an act of love. Ion lang Doc Suzy and Doc Raymond. Isang magandang tanghali sa ating lahat. Siguradong-siguradong ako na marami na naman tayong matututong ngayong hapon. Maraming salamat and over to you our indefatigable Dr. Duwo. Bagod na. Raymond, dapat to si V.P. Neni e pinifield natin sa TV siya ka sa radyo. Yes. Kasi, necessarily the medical expert who is needed right now. It's the communications expert and she was so so very, very clear. Neni, mag-guest ka na sa mga napakalinaw, napakalinaw, napakalinaw. I think, I don't know, it's food for thought, right? Maybe what we need are communication experts really to talk, not the technical experts. So Neni, thank you so much and ang kaleng pati projection Okay. So, Raymond, over to you na, ano ba ito, mag-mementimator na tayo, no? Yes. That's correct, Dr. Suzie. Thank you again, Vice President Neni Pernia for highlighting po the importance of disseminating the correct information and I second the motion by Dr. Suzie in terms of being able to tap our media partners po in doing this, no? Please join us po, mamaya po in the Q&A session and we really look forward to your insights also from the communication perspective Bibi Neni. And then now, for our webinar, thank you so much, TVUP. These are the two questions that we have. You are seeing being flash on the screen and I'm seeing also, a little over 370 individuals inputting their answers na po already in the opinion polls. We have two questions for this webinar and we hope that those who are watching us outside of the Zoom will be able to join via the Mentimeter. So sa mga medyo punahole or nakatanong, yougotomenti.com and there's the code po sa ibabaw po ng screen na nakitapuni nyo the very first question that we have. Ang lambda variant ay option one, variant of interest, option two, variant of concern and option three, variant of high consequence. We are now numbering 1525 po na, dito po sa ating Zoom. We also believe that there's a whole lot more of you who are outside of the Zoom joining us. Please join us dito po sa ating menti.com na po. And then for our second question, okay, while we waiting for the second question po, we have, I think we have 2,911 registrants for this webinar, Dr. Suzid. So that's a little bit on the high side at least for those who are registering for our webinar. We'd also like to greet those who are joining us from the Bayambang Rural Health Unit in Pangasinay, Ilocos Region from Antipolo City in Calabarson, from the University of Bohol in Tagbilaran, from Kamigin Medical Society, from Katarman Kamigin, and also General Santos City, LGU in Kotabato, Sok Sarjan. Internationally, we have our National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Shinjuku City, Tokyo, Taipei, Taiwan, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Bangkok, Thailand, Kupang, Indonesia, Dubai, UAE, Doha, Qatar, Riyad, Saudi Arabia, University of Fiji in Lautoka, Lunichi Ali University of Bleda II, Algeria and St. Catharines in Canada. For further discussion, ang lambda variant ay inakalang ng umpisa sa, so there are, ilang ba to? We have five countries here, China, Brazil, UK, South Africa, and Peru. So medyo mayro na kung clue from our person on the street that was earlier shown in the early part of this webinar. We will leave our zoom poll and Mentimeter na nakabukas lang po. We will try to wait for your inputs to this fun quiz and as we try to move on to the webinar proper and to be introduced by Dr. Suzy, our very first presenter. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you very much, Raymond. I just picked up something on the chat, Raymond, that one of our viewers lost her baby. She was five months pregnant. She was tested positive for COVID and then lost her baby at five months. And I just want to sort of, parang nakikiramay ako. I just want to extend our sympathies and just remember also that there are many of you who are exposed. I know of many people who have tested positive or have family members who have tested positive. It's really a difficult time. So we're just praying for everybody to be safe. And I think for our viewer who was asking the question whether her miscarriage had something to do with COVID. Maybe I don't know if any of our speakers lately will be able to address that. But it's very difficult to have a miscarriage and our sympathies are with you and our sympathies are with everyone in the audience who may have somebody who they lost during the pandemic. So just sort of a little shift. I want to be sensitive to what we are all going through. Napakayidap niya. But okay, on to our webinar. Okay, so we want to learn about the Lambda variant. And we have a very, very, what should I say, prominent expert who is going to talk to us about the Lambda variant. She is currently the director of the Philippine Genome Center but she was previously director of the Institute for Molecular Biology and head of the sequencing facility at UPD Liman. So our guest today is Professor Cynthia Saloma, director of the Philippine Genome Center. Professor Cynthia, welcome to the webinar. Thank you so much for this opportunity, Susie and Raymond. And sa ating lahat na tagapakinig, maglendang tanghali, maayong hapon, maayong panyaga sa inyong panan. Okay, so this I have palasi Ilonggo. Ilonggo, yeah. My mom's Ilonggo. Okay, but I can't speak it. I can't understand it. So Professor Sinch, I understand you trained in Japan. Am I correct? Yes, Dr. Susie, it was there for 10 years as an undergraduate and a student as well as PhD student. So 10 years, 88 to 98. Okay, so are you monitoring what's happening in Japan? Ano bang nangyayap ngayon? Oh, today it was really, really a little bit very, very concerned because all of a sudden from a case of 15,000, then they have 23,000 cases. And that is also we, they're going to open the Paralympics in a very short while, di ba po? Taya. It's a challenge really. Deaths, marami rin na mama tayo. O po, they also have recorded some deaths but not of course, at the level of Indonesia that is reporting 1,400 a day. 41,000 ang Indonesia per day. Okay, I mean. Deaths nila 1,400 every day. Oh my goodness. Okay, so this is very important for us, no? Far frontliners because sometimes it is natural for us to think about our situation and to feel very negative about what's happening. But I think it's a good reminder to hear about what's also happening in other places. So Japan 23,000 a day and Indonesia 41,000 with more than 1,000 deaths a day. Hi, nakote ka. O sige, tapos may lambda variant pa. Sige, Professor Sinsha, go ahead with your presentation so that we can be enlightened. And I think when we have information we will not be afraid. We will fight. We will continue to bring hope to our people through the information that we have. Go ahead, Professor Sinsha. So I'll be sharing my stream now. So sa ating lahat na tagapakinig I'm going to share with you the latest that we know all about the delta variant as well as the lambda variant here in the Philippines. So if you look at this slide going from the data of Giseid. So Giseid stands for the global initiative on the sharing of all influenza data. So this is really a public database where all of us who are doing whole genome sequencing at the SARS-CoV-2 virus share our information. And this is, this has been an unprecedented level of sharing of the information we have from the different labs all over the world. So far now, mga 2.7 million have already shared their sequences. So if you look very closely on this graph here on the left you will see that the delta variant is rapidly overtaking the other variants of concern particularly alpha. If you look at the data in April we will see that a lot of the submissions or the majority of submissions to Giseid were actually alpha. But in a very, very short period of time the delta variant has already overtaken with data suggesting that as much as 99% of current submissions are already of the delta variant. If you look at the regional distribution of the delta variant and the other variants of concern around the world we will notice for example that in South Africa although the sequencing here is not as much as for example if you compare it to Europe but still about 94% of the current sequence cases in Africa are of the delta variant and then of course in Asia about 87% in Europe wow 98% of the sequences shared which is about 170,000 are classified as the delta variant also the same for Australia New Zealand as well as in North America but amazingly in South America it is still the gamma variant that is predominating. Now in the Philippines we have already done sequencing for more than 11,000 cases and this is our current data as far as the alpha variant is concerned we have about 2,232 sequence cases 2,483 for the beta variant and then a total of 807 delta cases with 2 gamma and 347 p.3 or the VOI which was referred to before as theta so if you look very closely in the Philippines also this is really really notable that in contrast to other countries where a majority of the samples in the beginning were really alpha variants in the Philippines we have more sequence data variants than we have alpha variants and amazingly lately the delta variant cases are really really under eyes. I'm not included here actually but we have detected the first case of the lambda variant which I'm going to discuss with you today. So if you look at the number of sequences that have been done for the delta variant the delta variant has been detected in 115 countries and the sequence count so far is about 248,123 the delta variant was first detected in India on September 22, 2020 with the earliest sequence case in our country the earliest sequence case was swam on April 24, 2021. So here on the right are some of the defining mutations that you can see so F would stand for the mutations in the spike region of the protein and then you have also ORF3 as well as in the other regions of the protein. So in our national data for example let's look at all the counts so this is current as of August 14 which was the latest sequencing data we have shared to the Department of Health. So if you look very very close this is an absolute number of cases I would like to absolute number of samples shared to us or sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center so you can see for example that during the spike of cases in the national capital region we will see that a lot of the samples were really coming from beta as well as alpha but amazingly between June and July from a very small number of cases in the national capital region nationally we have now more delta than either alpha beta or alpha cases in the national capital region if you look very very closely you can see very well here that the delta variant is actually the majority of all the sequence cases with swab samples coming in from June and that has been a very very fast rising cases if you compare it with the data that we have from June to July so July alone we have about 68% of our sequence cases coming from the national capital region to be the delta variant so here is histogram you can see a very very rapid rise in our sequence cases coming in from the different parts of the country with 42% now for the July samples being represented by the delta variant we have to emphasize of course that these are based on the submitted samples to the Philippine Genome Center so we have to anticipate so there seems to be some biases in sampling but at any rate based on the data that we have on hand we have 42% of sequence cases nationally being delta but in the national capital region from 10.56% of cases sequenced in June we now have about 68% represented by the delta variant so the delta variant is not just b.1.61.2 this actually already includes some of the delta like or delta plus cases so with delta we have ay.1.2.3 and so on and so forth I think there's already ay.1.2 so we all classify them as delta variant now we have also noticed a noticeable trend we don't know whether this will continue but we just like would like at least it's very important that we share it to you so of the 807 confirmed delta cases we have that we have sequenced at the UP Philippine Genome Center we also noticed that there has been a slight increase or there's data that suggests that we have more cases of delta in terms of percentage in the age group of below 17 so if you look very closely and with the other cases we notice that of course the absolute number is not very high yet but we notice that this is a notable percentage in terms of delta cases sequence from samples coming from children below 17 and below so if you have 30, 14, 13% of cases from the upper age group but here we have all the delta and its sublimitges to be slightly higher compared to the others so these are some of the latest data we have in new information coming in about the delta variant it is associated with lower city values and I think that reflects the very high viral load we observe so the moment we see city values of 12, 14, 16 the possibility is really high that it could be the delta variant there are also information that came in where the viral shedding for the delta seems to be lasting for 18 days compared to the other variants or the original stream where it was only so if this is born out with more data this has actually a lot of implications on our quarantine protocols number three the risk of reinfection in delta may be higher compared to the alpha variant with reinfection higher when six months have elapsed there seems to be more severe illness with delta but this needs further confirmation so these are initial reports but for the spread where the delta variant seems to have an R0 of 5 to 9 data suggests currently that it is as transmissible as the chicken pox and delta is more transmissible than either SARS MERS Ebola Common cold and even small pox and the vaccinated people carry huge amounts of the virus and this is really really very important and vaccinated people can be just as contagious as unvaccinated people and number seven will as much as 75% of breakthrough cases with the delta variant could happen symptoms were generally milder and at 99.5% of deaths occurred in the unvaccinated and this is data coming from the United States so now let's go to the lambda variant which is our main topic for today so the lambda variant is first described detected in Peru it has now spread to about 33 countries probably 34 plus one in the Philippines the sequence count so far is about 4,150 cases and the earlier sample coming from Peru was dated or was collected on November 8, 2020 so if you look at here on the right side these are some of the telltale or the snips the hallmarks mutations of the lambda variant so you have mutations in the air in the spike region this one there is a seven amino acid deletion from R246 to 252 and of course would like to emphasize that the delta or the lambda variants and all our variants of concern already contain the D614G mutation that was first spreading all over the world in June 2020 so these are some of the hallmark mutations in the lambda variant so rather now let's go to the question or should we be afraid, should we be concerned so if you look at these graph from just say look at this very closely you will notice for example that the lambda variant actually is not considered as a VOI by the US CDC so in the US CDC has its own list of VOCs and VOIs the WHO considers the lambda variant as a variant of interest but the US CDC does not consider it as a variant of interest if you look at the data based on submit it's considered a marked decrease in the number of submitted expenses of the lambda variant and I think that was one of the reasons where the US CDC does not consider this a VOI because it seems not to be spreading as compared to the delta variant so these are the new information of the lambda variant in our country we have only detected one out of more than 11,000 whole genome sequences we have analyzed at the UPPGC the sample is from a 35 year old female that was collected on July 22 this female is not a returning overseas Filipino worker this was collected routinely in the community from a submission by one of our local laboratories so in vitro data in Japan so in Japan in the first cases on July 23 on the start of the Olympic Games the mutations in the variant have their suggests that they have potential for immune evasion so there's really a lot of information we did not know about the lambda variant but the concerning thing about the lambda variant was because it was detected in Peru and Peru is the number one country out of many other countries around the world it has the highest per capita death rate as about 5,900 cases per million population so that's why people were concerned about the lambda variant were in the initial genome sequencing done by Peru about 79% were lambda variant and Peru but their sequencing capability is really very small so there are only 100 cases so the one country with the most number of lambda variants now deposited in the state is actually Chile so although it has spread to more than 33 countries around the world the lambda variant is essentially moving around South America so there are need we need to have a lot more data also the clinical and epidemiologic implications of this lambda variant but they would like to emphasize that vaccines work both for the delta as well as the lambda variant they are very good at preventing severe cases as well as hospitalization so I'm going to end here with my talk with the thank for thanking all these young men and women at the UP Philippine Genome Center as well as the funding support provided to us by the DOH the DOSEPCHRD the Chet Picari as well as the UP system thank you Pa thank you very much that is Professor Cynthia Saloma of the Philippine Genome Center for an excellent very clear presentation and sabi nga natin to sa web na gusto natin naging lahat ng talino ng ating bayan and we're very proud Professor Cynthia of the work that you're doing at the Philippine Genome Center is doing and your fellow Ilongas and Ilongos are also very proud of you we can see it in the chat na pa kawosay daw kawosay po ang mga Pilipino mahusay po ang ating mga dalubahasan ating mga scientific ko so thank you so much I think that for me that made it really very clear where we are on the Lambda variant and I'm gonna turn over now to Raymond for our next speaker Raymond thank you Dr. Saloma and Dr. Susie our next speaker po is someone who's not entirely new to us he's a special advisor of the National Task Force against COVID-19 also a faculty member at the UP College of Medicine and has served as Undersecretary for the Department of Health you know him as one of the moving forces po for this Stop COVID Deaths webinar series please welcome back to the webinar Dr. Ted Herbosa Sir Ted Kola si Ted ah ayun ok na I'm here the host muted me ok so thank you very much Raymond for that kind introduction and of course I'm very happy and thank you for keeping this Stop COVID Deaths Webinar Alive this was a crazy idea of that doctor there Dr. Susie Pineda Mercado who decided to use this and we used the resources of National Telehealth and the Office of the Vice President for Public Affairs and we've now produced 66 Fridays that's amazing so let me get straight you hold it Ted so it's not yours it's not to Lloyd right ok so go ahead go ahead but I'm very happy of what you've done it's gotten a life of its own so I would have wanted to talk about lambada and Susie knows that I would rather talk about swing and salsa than talk about lambada but they asked me to talk about the variants and the vaccines you know the Philippines has been struggling and there are so many what do you call noises out there in terms of understanding the vaccines and the variants and also COVID-19 and the response and I'd like to talk about situation last night we had a big meeting of the Asian collaboration for trauma and I was talking about mass casualties and one of the reactor said you know the trauma surgeon should have been the one to have responded to this pandemic because of the way we think the way the trauma surgeons think with little information we actually save your lives in trauma with little information we don't wait for the information we triage it so that was a very interesting discussion and I think the end point there was that everybody needs to actually contribute we can see what has happened to this particular pandemic and I cite this particular publication by Cyrilip and Panjabi on the last scary epidemic that happened in West Africa this was the Ebola experience and there were five lessons learned from that very scary experience remember the mortality rate of Ebola is very high so the first thing you do is slow down the virus lahat na nyan ginawa natin band public gatherings closed schools ask your residents to stay home next, number two test, test and test scale up testing medyo kulang patay dito we're matching about 40 to 50,000 tests a day I think with the entry of the lambda and the delta we should test more about 120,000 tests a day it's what we should be doing number three protect your healthcare workers remember we saw these figures of people taking care of Ebola in full PPEs and that's what we did we bought lots of PPE ayun nakawa na yung ating secretary of health for procuring all these PPEs but it's important to protect the healthcare worker and number four is repurposed arms of government including the military and this is where madaming nagsasalita sa social media who's never done an epidemic response anyway or who's never done a disaster anyway and they don't understand the military the uniform services have the manpower have the logistics have the experience to fight a situation like this which is either a disaster or a pandemic and that's what happened in West Africa the three greatest armies actually went there to stop the Ebola from spreading all over the world the UK the US and the French army all went to different countries and stopped Ebola and number five is what the discussion is and I think many people are claiming that the decision to do now MECQ this coming tomorrow is an economic decision and not a public health decision I again disagree for people who say that because health and economic should be taken together you should you should listen to former secretary Pernia on why the two should go hand in hand again we understand this as a complex emergency where factors like political conflict people saying bad things to each other online and even in the hearings and then there's continued conflict and violence by communist terrorist groups and then there's poverty people are pushed to poverty and I really think this is as complex as an emergency you can think of this was mentioned already by Susie communications is the number one thing they taught us when I was studying for crisis and emergency management in the University of Geneva the CDC professor there from Atlanta University of Atlanta said you know in epidemics rumors spread faster than the virus and that's exactly what happens here this is the reason why I think stop COVID that is successful it has been a robust source of solid information from the experts in UP and thereabouts so the variants came the genome center is a very complex process the genome sequencing and we've identified the delta the lineage names are there in the alphanumeric names that was mentioned and we were predominantly having the alpha and the beta which is the UK and the South African but very quickly in a couple of months delta is catching up so you can see it's about 807 I think this is the latest report of the samples that were fully sequenced and that's very quick from the two leading causes which is 2,000 and suddenly now you have almost 1,000 that's delta so that's driving your surge the lambda or the lambada here is just 1% just one case so it's still 0.01 so hindi pa natin pinapansin nyan and ang sabi nila the experts said that when delta when several variants of concern come in there is the predominant one actually proliferates and that's probably going to be delta this is another one this is I think a study in communications you know complain sa akin itong infographic ng DOH bakit daw ang lilyit ng debtors nung number pagsun sa bagong kaso at mas malalaki yung porcento nang gumali so are they trying to brainwashed so even the way we communicate is very important and I congratulate VP Neni for really stating all the things we need to do in very simple plain language and that's what's important at this time so the delta variant how does it behave clinically now from a public health perspective we have five things that we know about the delta variant it's spreading rapidly around the world it's four times more transmissible than the two previous predominant variants alpha and beta it is associated with different symptoms they don't present the same way and people will be more likely hospitalized twice the probability of being hospitalized if you are infected with a delta variant and one dose of the vaccine is less effective but two doses strongly productive so what were the things that were studied about transmissibility it's about the mutation so that it has the bigger the stronger capacity to latch on the human cell on the ACE receptor so mas madikit siya stickier and because it can latch easily it will also it has another mutation that allows it to fuse and enter the cytoplasm and use the mitochondria to actually replicate much more and then that cell dies and suddenly you have a whole lot number of viruses in the body the other thing they found out is that the symptoms the number one this is a study in the UK I think this is in in one of if they used a technology wherein you will report similar to what we had yung speed where you report your symptoms and the top ten symptoms where headaches sore throat runny nose and fever cough was rarer and you don't see loss of smell in the top ten symptoms anymore and then what happens here is that the younger people who get the delta infection are really the ones likely not to develop infection mistake it for a bad cold or a bad sore throat or something so this enhances the delta spread unlike the other one if you lose smell atakot ka na alam mo nang ano na siya the other things we found is that hospitalization doubles the higher chance of being hospitalized especially if you have an underlying condition so this is how our epidemic graphs have been looking we've just had our peak last April and the different lines here represent Visayas, Mindanao, NCR NCR plus areas and the rest of person what is interesting is that last year when we had the July August in 2020 we had sequential increases of cases first it was Cebu then it was NCR then it was 4A then it was Region 3 Northern Luzon so nagsikens right now it's all increasing at the same time we have Kagayan de Oro in Mindanao and Northern we have the West Visayas also peaking we have 4A and Region 3 also peaking so it's all at the same time so that's something we're fighting fires all together at the same time so let me go over to the vaccines and the vaccines have been arriving at a pace we already have almost 49 million doses of vaccines that have landed in the Philippines and our goal really with the vaccination is to save more lives and recover the economy and probably even integrate a vaccination plan for COVID in the future even giving booster doses maybe as needed depending on the evidence and reducing our mortality and morbidity but let me explain what a vaccination deployment program really is people think it's just injecting a job and the way people post on social media it's like it's a very simple thing to do it's very complex and I'm telling you being part of the national vaccine operations cluster where in Secretary Galvez asked me to help Yusef Mirna it's not easy because from the source to try to procure it to bring it and fly it to the country eventually to store it in cold storage in national warehouses and then divide them and then distribute them to regional warehouses and the regional departments also distributing them in the correct numbers in the correct brands to the different LGUs and then eventually just landing in the right time at the right place in the vaccination sites for the right people getting the first dose the second dose or the correct brand so this makes it even what makes it even more complex is we are doing this for seven brands when the Israelis came here they only used the Pfizer and a little Astra but there was such a simple task which is just deployment hours we used seven brands and the seven brands have different training programs different storage different packaging different everything and they were amazed at how we were implementing it and they were actually commanding how the country was actually doing this so we have several strategies on the vaccination deployment 2021 this year is really about containment and containing the disease by vaccinating 70 million achieving what they now call population protection so herd immunity is a dream because you will always have mutations and variants and I don't think herd immunity has been attained by any of the countries even those that were ahead of us with the vaccination and those countries that claimed herd immunity are now giving booster doses so we do hope we get to protect people so it's about containment making sure there's less transmission next year they budgeted 45 billion for probable booster doses and let's wait for the evidence of these other countries that started giving booster and then continue recovering the economy with more vaccinated Filipinos and hopefully in 2023 we continue to have that virology institute and the Balik scientists and even our own vaccine production facilities now the effort to improve vaccine rollout has started even last January when we had a big logistics summit attended by all the experts of logistics and supply chain management from the different private companies they have been giving their expertise since last year actually since even with the testing and the PPEs but now they've gotten really to show us how they do it in Jollibee and McDonald's to make sure that you get the brand of hamburger that you actually like at the store so it's very similar and their experts have been guiding our public health people in the overall distribution and containment so the private sector has been very helpful in procurement with the tripartite agreement in communications as they putting out their own money to advertise and encourage people to get vaccinated in distribution and administration the private hospitals and the malls and even the the big casinos and then the data analytics as well so globally we actually know that the vaccine manufacturers had only been able to produce will only be able to produce 5.8 billion for the 5.8 billion and it's a shortfall of about 2 billion for the total global population and this is the current statistics as of now there are 22 EUAs 21 EUAs and the current rate at which the world is vaccinating is at 38.2 million but you can see that's highest in countries like the US, Europe and very light colors in Africa and the other countries so the total vaccines delivered worldwide is 4.7 so the target is about 5.8 by the end of this year which is what they can manufacture and the rest of the deliveries will come so we're vaccinating at half a million a day so globally we're doing 38 million a day so we're contributing half a million and there was a time I thought we were going to reach 1 million a day because we had a few days so we were reaching 750 vaccinations per day so this is the tripartite agreement not all the companies provide tripartite agreements AstraZeneca agreed to that Moderna agreed to that I think Novovax also agreed to that but Novovax is still going to be delivered in October so this is where the private sector has been helpful they help procure additional vaccines in terms of what we can give to the people through people's money or cost recovery so it's still being sold to the national government but the national government is still helping to procure for example Mr. Razon actually procured 7 million doses of Moderna the government procured 13 and together that 20 million was a lower price than the actual rate if they just bought on their own so it's actually helpful for each other for the AstraZeneca we have both the private sector and the LGUs with a total of about 19 million doses and these are already arriving even the Moderna is already starting to arrive but very small amounts so this is our campaign it's got a good chart and most of the vaccinations will actually happen this coming September, October, November so the campaigns are very useful and this is one campaign that I really like to mention all the time because it talks about how the celebrities are able to encourage people who are hesitant to get vaccinated so we hear stories of fans of Marian that they will get vaccinated because she already got vaccinated that's tremendous and these actors and celebrities have been contributing for free so hindi naman nagpapabayad yung mga and they're posting their Instagram photos like yung iconic photo of Ding Dong and Marian nang magkayakap with the V sign on their shoulder nakinop yan ang lahat ng tao then instead of instead of enforcement we get enticements by giving discounts if you show your vaccine cards in over 190 establishments and then there are very interesting approaches of the LGUs you see, vaccine administration is the purview of the mayor so from the regional office of the department of health the vaccines go straight to mayors and the mayors are the ones who plan the orderly and the quick distribution and administration of the vaccines to the priority groups so very important na monproduce Kesson City has the highest population so if they don't do Bacuna Nights we will never finish the population of Kesson City and when they started it gumaya si Tagig of course Tagig has been very good as well doing Bacuna Nights and yung Bacuna Nights feels like a fiesta if you go to it it's very interesting kasi may banda, may music it's like going to a fair and the mood is different so I think that encourages as well young people to get vaccinated especially the people that are working in Bonifacio Global City and then there's this mayor in Manila who started a drive through vaccination of course he's also criticized for his no registration can walk in but his drive through has been very effective in producing safe vaccination especially for the senior citizens that you don't want to be vaccinated area exposed to other people and this is the big one the very controversial one at Nayong Pilipino this is now functional in Paranyake and it will also cater to 4A to Kabita and Laguda because it's output this is like a I think it can do 15,000 vaccinations per day and it's a very efficient system of course the hospitals are also given permits to actually vaccinate so we're really ramping up vaccination this is the mall we're using the big mall this is SM Aura in Tagig and of course the buses also vaccination buses so this is an old slide the total because there's been deliveries every week and it's no longer 29 what has been delivered is 49 million since this slide had been made and these are our priority groups the two big circles are our most important priority groups A1 is your healthcare workers we're doing very well with that of the 1.6 million healthcare workers we've given 1.539 two doses so that's a good accomplishment so our health workers are protected but our A2 needs more work we're at 40% 44% in its level and we want to reach at least 50% so that we can have them protected and not die and this is the experience in Israel as the even when they had delta because they're the country with the 90% vaccination rate very little ICU admissions I think we're already on 29 and we're about to reach 30 million doses administered so we keep increasing this that's the current rate we're doing 500,000 vaccinations per day and that's actually a good pace to reach the 70 million and these are the areas with of course the highly urbanized cities are the ones that will get the vaccines first and that's logical to reach the 70% of the population just to give you an idea of the different brands we're using and this portfolio approach was suggested by the vaccine expert panel and I would like to congratulate them for suggesting that because we're one of two countries that use seven brands most countries will use one two or three brands at the most but there are two countries I forgot the other country I think it's a Latin American country that does also seven and because of this we always have supply the problem really is about distribution and supply chain management now, do the vaccines work? of course they've been working do the vaccines work against the variants? of course they also work in the variants and this is a viral post or meme infographic posted by the infectious disease section of the Philippine General Hospital who by for your information has already converted to a full COVID hospital because of the surge and they analyze their cases of the 265 that were admitted on the day that this was without on August 15 majority of 187 were unvaccinated 25 were partially vaccinated and 53 were completely vaccinated so in the ICU so that means if you get vaccinated you may still be hospitalized but that doesn't mean you'll get into the ICU but once you get into the ICU look at the proportions it's nine unvaccinated two partially vaccinated two completely vaccinated and it's the same for those that get ventilatory support or who are intubated so it's proving to do its promise that if you are completely vaccinated you can still get the infection but you'll probably suffer a milder case of infection I just shared this blog this blog written by an expert and rated some of the vaccines that are out there in the market based on efficacy and adverse events so if you really look at it the safest are the corona back the Sinovac corona back and the Sinofarm they're the safest but they also have kind of a low efficacy but as you go farther to the right of the graph you will see the more modern Moderna and Pfizer which will have more adverse events and this is what we're seeing J&J somewhere in the middle so this is just graphical but it really doesn't matter if you don't have a side effect so this is the population study so let me clarify with that so this is our target we'll be able to get 50% of the population we will stop this delta surge somehow and not that have as high as our neighboring countries and if we reach 70% we will be able to really contain continued transmission and hopefully next year eliminate the disease magumpisan na tayo sa B category that means everybody else the vaccines are arriving I do hope everybody gets vaccinated when their time comes most recently there were a lot of controversies that we need to talk about the issue on vaccinating pregnant women so the stand here is really on the latter trimesters the interval of vaccination doses they wanted to shorten it the expert panel did not agree and they continued 8 to 12 weeks for AstraZeneca provision of booster doses is not yet allowed I say not yet because I think sometime we will be allowing it but depends on who should get it and what should you get is it the same brand is it a different brand et cetera then the co-administration is also not allowed unless you have a severe reaction to the first dose that prevents you and increases your risk to death and they'll probably give you a different dose the single dose strategy we also did not implement pediatric vaccination we said we'll vaccinate first all the 18 years old and above and when we complete that let's decide if we will give the pediatric age group their vaccination we also talked about the quarantine testing which they reverted back from 7 days to 10 plus 4 or 14 days and now there's a strategy to get senior citizens whoever is bringing them to the Bacuna Center will also be given a vaccination even if they belong to the B category so parang one plus one so parang free beyond for bringing a senior citizen to the vaccination center so the ideas of what to improve and this was mentioned to us by VP Nenny let's say hi to each other and hello Kamusta and everything else so this was the picture of the COVAX delivery of AstraZeneca the Sputnik delivery and this was yesterday 3 million doses of Sinovac the largest delivery of Sinovac in a single shipment by a Boeing 777 and with this slide this slide is really all about looking at the whole picture from a big picture look so let's look at the economics let's look at our neighborhood let's look at education let's look at food for the poor let's look at the co-social context and also improve our health system so with that I'd like to summarize we've talked about the global situation of the COVID-19 both globally and nationally talked about the Delta variant and its clinical features our vaccine deployment program as it's happening and very important let's look at this from really a big picture look which is usually looking at the social determinants Maraming salamat Susie and Raymond and back to you guys Thank you so much that quick update Dr. Herbosa a very very important to note as I've been reading the comments on the chat with regards to the booster we have already had public responses from our government officials that boosters will initially be started for the front characters as well as yung mga immunocompromise so very very similar to how it's being done in Israel and the United States when they will be starting the booster program next month Okay, over to you Dr. Susie for the introduction of our reactors Thank you very much Ted always a pleasure to listen to Dr. Ted Herbosa because he gives us that insight Raymond sometimes in media what can you say in five minutes that helps reassure people it's very difficult so I think it's really great to have Ted on the webinar occasionally just to give us the low down on what's really happening because it's very easy to to sow fear yung parang magkalat ng duda magkalat ng nega na mga sinasabi pero ito nakikita po natin na meron talagang mga pagbabago na alala ko Raymond when we started I can't remember who it was who said that we would only be able to get 10 million vaccines this year and you can see now that we have more vaccines more vaccination will be done and seeing the spread from from Ted the plan and how things are moving I think we are going in the right direction we just need to hang in there mahirap po talaga mahirap po talaga it's really difficult everywhere but the government is moving and thank you Ted for that excellent presentation because again it became very clear to people ito yung nangyayari merong nangyayari at malaki yung nangyayari dun sa pagbabago na alright we are going to our next speaker who is actually from the private sector Raymond and we thought we would invite somebody who could talk about how the private sector is helping because for example in the transport of vaccines right the airlines are bringing the vaccines Ted showed us that diagram where you have you have to bring bring the vaccines to all the different parts of the country and in a situation where business is low and people are afraid to work our private sector has stepped up so it's my pleasure to introduce to you the vice president for human resources again lahat ng talino nangangang gamiti natin dito sa pandemiya siya po ay dalobasa sa human resources has been working in the corporate sector for some time very young but very energetic and I would say someone we want to be proud of also human resources for Sibu Pacific Air I'd like to welcome Felix Dan Lopez Felix, welcome to the webinar Thank you for the kind introduction Dr. Suzie not really very young but thank you for that Okay, Felix ask what Sibu Pacific is doing Okay, let me share my deck give me a sec There we go Okay, I hope I'm coming in clear Yes, you are Great Okay, it's really my privilege to be sharing the Sibu Pacific story with you this afternoon really humbled to be sharing the same panel with Dr. Ted and Prof. Cynthia and later on also with Dr. Raymond Let me start with this slide I think it is apparent that this pandemic is really the strongest headwind Sibu Pacific or any other airline for that matter has encountered For the next few minutes let me share with you our journey and how we remain cautiously headstrong as we continue with our flight to recovery like what Dr. said earlier and what also Dr. Suzie mentioned I am wearing my private sector hat sharing the same objective as that of my esteemed co-panelists of achieving an all-of-society all-of-nation approach in fighting COVID-19 The pandemic had an immediate and negative impact on the private sector for sure and that challenged us to be agile to be more relevant and contribute to help drive the recovery process forward We are 2,558 employees strong who continue to serve us our customers both cargo and passengers amidst the tough conditions But what the pandemic taught us is that the company's circle of concern cannot just be ring-fans with merely the employees and our customers' welfare The circle has really widened to include employees' families the communities where they belong and the society in general Indeed, the pandemic is an inflection point and it depends on all of us how we will adopt and respond to it To date, 91% of SEB's total workforce have been inoculated while 93% of our pilots and cabin crew have received their vaccine doses Even before the pandemic the safety of our flights has been a top-most priority With this crisis now more than ever health is a primordial concern Rightfully so we continue to ensure everyone will feel confident to fly with Cebu Pacific plus our championing vaccination efforts We have secured enough vaccines for our employees and their dependents and for our third-party workers not only in Cebu Pacific but for the whole conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. We are also very thankful given the partnership with several local government units such as PASI and Cebu to have a quicker uptake This whole initiative is also in line with our shared vision with Inhat Angat a private sector-led campaign that promotes safety measures and vaccination to help foster a nationwide economic recovery We've heard Professor Cynthia earlier and Dr. Ted explaining about the Delta and the Lambda virus Especially now that the virus really evolving with variants of concern and variants of interest we continue with education and information dissemination Top of the list of topics would be the importance of vaccination Communicating principles such as the earliest vaccine in your arm is the best vaccine and something very specific for Cebu Pacific that domestic travel will rebound earlier than anticipated if you reach higher vaccination levels the soonest Proud to note that compared to April 2021 survey results of Cebu Pacific populations willingness to be vaccinated at 94% We are now at 99.4% and are still painstakingly convincing talking, educating educating the remaining 15 people of 2,558 who are still unwilling to be vaccinated Despite high vaccination levels we cannot be complacent We continue with surveillance using our tests before duty initiative We require all frontline employees pilots cabin crew airport staff to undergo testing prior reporting for work or flight We started with antibody testing from May 2020 to October 2020 then shifted to antigen from November 2020 up until now Surveillance is beneficial for both our frontline employees and our flying public since we only release those people who tested antigenegative for duty With tests before duty we are able to also do robust data gathering and reporting especially now on breakthrough infection cases We needed to recalibrate our employee priorities with the pandemic, health and safety of our employees their families and the communities they operate and became top of our agenda We were quick on our feet and mobilized programs some of which you can see on this slide Free medical teleconsultation telemedicine for our employees and their dependents and by dependents to be accommodated people within their network such as house help drivers extended relatives or non-relatives living with them among others Leveraging under conglomerate size and shape for assistance and hospital access when needed Free testing or supported by their HMO coverages We even converted an area to be an isolation facility for people with known exposures and waiting for their test results and mental health support which is a critical area of concern especially now We had to continuously build and develop employee trust in the organization with various communication initiatives such as 12 leadership and 5 organization-wide virtual town halls and 5 virtual copy hands coupled with targeted internal comms We encouraged and facilitated collaboration in a hybrid flexible work environment employees can work on site they can work remotely work a combination of remote and onsite We started this in 2020 and we communicated to the organization that the set will be followed up until the end of the year We are also now in discussion to apply hybrid work arrangement with some guardrails in 2022 and beyond We maintained employee productivity and engagement through disruption and uncertainty via learning programs such as Seb University on the go From synchronous classroom programs pre-pandemic we had to quickly pivot to a synchronous bite-sized virtual weekly learning and in 2021 gradually open synchronous classes albeit virtually and engagement initiatives such as one online community channels as you can see on the right of this slide We optimized our virtual platform to host non-work related employee interests such as arts and crafts recipes for those who love cooking parenthood spiritual physical health and wellness among others 2020 was Cebu Pacific's toughest year with headwinds so turbulent but we were able to withstand the odds and yielded high engagement score and high net promoter score from employees Given the initiatives laid out earlier which focused on employees their families and the circles they operate in On top of our high level vaccination rates among our staff and the tests before duty surveillance we have adopted a layered approach to biosafety measures to help curb the spread of the virus onboard Masks and shields are still required Extensive disinfection are performed by personnel certified by the BOQ and our aircraft are equipped with hospital grade high efficiency particulate air or HEPA filters which effectively circulate clean air every 3 minutes and eliminate microscopic particles with 99.99% efficiency International Air Transport Association or IATA shows that the condition in the air cabin makes transmission of virus difficult as airflow exchange rates and directions are less conducive to droplet spread Besides implementing stringent health protocols to our multi-layered approach and advocating vaccination and safe practices and I think this was mentioned earlier we have also transported millions of vaccine doses for the Filipino people Seb has carried over 16 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China to Manila and over 5 million doses to 20 provinces nationwide to date We have also flown special commercial and bayanian flights bringing home Filipinos from the Middle East We are able to also fly home more than 1000 Filipinos via repatriation flights and this is our commitment As part of the private sector we will continue to do what we can to contribute to whatever will speed up the process of recovery in our country because by doing such we will also be able to paint the skies yellow again With that, thank you so much everyone for listening Okay, thank you very much That was Felix Dan Lopez I don't know if I'm the only one who's having another moment here but I just want to thank you Felix for sharing that with us Really, the private sector plays a huge role and I could see through all of the things that you're doing to protect your workers to make sure that passengers are safe and to actually transport vaccines and transport our OFWs is really such a heroic effort for you So I'd just like to thank you of all of us who are listening to you and it makes us all very proud to be Filipinos and to be supporting each other in this way Reimond, dagay emot na Thank you, Dr. Sussi Really, all hands on deck if you really want to make sure that we will cover fast in this crisis Thank you so much Thank you, Felix Reimond ang jon ka pa Yes, yes, Dr. Sussi We're really just very grateful to the private sector also that Sibu Pacific figures prominently but there are also other private companies who are also contributing as mentioned by Sir Felix really all hands on deck and it's not possible to support your contribution in our response and as part of our getting out of this pandemic Okay for our final speaker for this webinar and he will also be reacting nipo kaila sa atin at the Philippine Red Cross has been truly instrumental as part of our work in the COVID-19 response and one of the shall we say one of the most hardworking mga bcb kung baga sa Philippine Red Cross ang kanilang clinical services ASIC and the clinical services coordinator for the Philippine Red Cross today will be giving his reaction as part of his talk for today's webinar other than Dr. Noelle Bernardo Dr. Bernardo Gan dang hapon po sa inyong dahat so I will also share my slides pa Yeah Dr. Noelle welcome and Raymond I wanted to say something before Noelle speaks Go ahead I've had a chance to work very closely with the Philippine Red Cross in the past as you all know and Chairman Richard Gordon really is a force of nature I don't know if you recall Raymond in the early days when it was only our ITM doing the testing and remember in the first few days of the pandemic we had to send our samples to to Japan and Australia and Chairman Richard Gordon immediately saw that the Philippine Red Cross could play a big role in testing kasi kung walangan naman tayong testing how do we know who's going to be isolated and it was really a very a very difficult difficult position to be in but he actually Senator Gordon actually made it possible for the doors to be opened for more testing not only that the Red Cross has been at the forefront of providing support to the hospitals yung mga tents nakikita nyo I'm sure Noel's going to talk about this food the saliva tests that are now available at make it really faster and of course just helping our patients through ambulance care and so on so I just wanted to say that the other days we've had Secretary Pao Obiel but it's really an honor to have Noel Bernardo who I don't know Raymond it's in the notes kasi Doctor to the Barrio to Date so one of our young doctors who is really committed to just service and he's in the best place by being in the Philippine Red Cross which is really truly committed to humanitarian service so Noel go ahead with your presentation So maraming maraming salamat po ma doc Susie tapos magandang hapon po sa inyong lahat again ayong doctor Bernardo po from the Philippine Red Cross ay may humanitarian physician and also the clinical services coordinator at masaya po akong ikapuen po sa inyong lahat ayong hapon yung maginagawa po ng Philippine Red Cross to contribute in our nation's pandemic response so siguro po to start gusto ko po sa nang ipakita sa inyo ano ba yung paniniwala ng Philippine Red Cross we believe that if you have compassionate volunteers we have strong logistical support and efficient and relevant information systems we will always have our Philippine Red Cross which is always first always ready and always there anim na bon pa lang po ka sa Philippine Red Cross ay kung baga bagong bago pa so ginawa ko po bago ko for this afternoon nide-research ko kailan ba nagsimula yung pag-ahanda ng Philippine Red Cross for this pandemic nakita ko po to ng 2017 nung kasama po sa Philippine Red Cross kasi Dok Susi they were actually starting to do consultative meetings for a proposed Red Cross Institute for Public Health Emergencies ang goal po makapag-ready tayo sa panahon na barang time pandemic plagues or any other public health emergency meeting response from the humanitarian sector and since then the PRC has been preparing for pandemics and any other disasters actually nung January 2019 one year before we had COVID po PRC already conducted chemical, biological, radiologic, nuclear disasters and plagues training po tapos po atina-aspo natin yung ating surveillance systems to make sure na pag-dumating po yung mga pandemic katulad ng what we are experiencing right now handa na po tayo laging kung titigdan yung picture na to tiba may hawak si Chairman Gordon na the great influenza po laging pinapresent na yan and since that thing datipan na datating daw ang panahon na magkakalaon tayo ng pandemi at katoong nga nang kalaon tayo ng great influenza this influenza happened yung nasa limpo po happened 100 years ago at doon po nakita natin how people started to take care of each other na pagtulong-tulong sama-sama kinaya po nila yung pandemia and Red Cross is trying to to be in that to be the platform we want to become the catalyst for that social initiative na dapat po lahat ng sector nakutulong-tulong public, private, humanitarian organizations lahat ng pweding tumulong bag ang bag po tayo for us to survive this great pandemic and that is why if you look at the response platform of the Philippine Red Cross ang gusto ni Chairman Gordon sa amin lahat kapamaan po namin this is the parang all levels ng response natin ngayon sa Philippine Red Cross we want to make sure that we're doing something to test individuals to fight this invisible war we want to make sure na pag na test natin sila ma-isolate natin sila safely sa mga isolation units para maprevent yung community transmission yung mga na test natin na nag-positive that we want to give immediate medical response kailangan nag-agamot natin sila agad para mabawasan yung pagkamatay ng mga tao and for those who are safe those who are not infected yet we want to protect them we want to make sure that they're safe that they're healthy and they're doing something through their own efforts pag yung pababakuna nila it is a contribution for the resilience of their communities kaya po lahat ng program ng Philippine Red Cross gusto natin tumatama tayo sa apat na yan we have established the molecular laboratories we have isolation units community based isolation units to to quarantine to isolate infected individuals we have been supporting a lot of hospitals to 28 hospitals deploying 96 medical tents nationwide to to service field hospitals po para mag maging surge capacity po ng mga health facilities natin and right now we are ramping up our efforts in making sure that everyone gets vaccinated as soon as possible okay first for the molecular laboratories po I want to show you the story of our testing right now the Philippine Red Cross is testing one for every four Filipinos isa sa kadaapat na Pilipino ng nagpapatest malaman sa malaman sa Pilipino Red Cross po yan nilawa ang NCR po sa Metro Manila mas matahas pa yung data natin isa sa kadaapat nung test sa Metro Manila sa Pilipino Red Cross po yan and I think this is one of the greatest contribution of the Philippine Red Cross to our response right now dahil kung nakitapest natin yung mga tao alam natin ko siyong infected napipigilan po natin yung pagtalat ng COVID kaya naman po doble talaga yung efforts namin para lang ma make sure na lahat tayo nati test hindi po naging madali para sa Pilipino Red Cross yung pagtatayo po ng molecular lab at nakuento nga po ng Doc Susie isa kasi kami sa pinakauna apil 14 palang po nagtatest akabit that's just one month after we declared the first community quarantine here in Luzon medyo masalimuot po yung pagsisimula namin kasi hindi naman lahat alam ko anong testing at kunti talaga sa industries natin yung gusto pumasak dyan at sa panahon po na lahat akot lahat gusto mag-stay at home ang hirap po talagang kumuha ng mga volunteers and passionate health workers to help us in our testing efforts pero po sa tulong po ng mga initiatives from our leaders like Chairman Gordon the governors of the Pilipino Red Cross and different chapters po community-based engagement po ang ginawa natin we were able to establish and empower our communities to pa ng promote testing hindi lang po dito sa mga centers natin sa mga metro areas kundi pati sa mga probit siya over the past few months gabi po yung expansion ng Pilipino Red Cross we have established different mega-swabbing facilities in partner with different local government units so yung mga government units LGUs na may mega-swabbing centers malamang sa malamang sa Pilipino Red Cross pa din nila pinapadala yung mga samples po dila yung mga LGUs na walang kakayanan magtayo ng sarili mo like your love we have been supporting them giving them partnership na natsacharge nila sa either sa funds nila or sa Phil Health para hindi po gumagasos tinatanggal natin yung burden ng paggasos sa testing from our patients we have been placing our molecular laboratories in strategic location station-wide and we have been embracing technology gusto natin high throughput testing ayaw natin ang pakonting kontek, gusto natin efficient para marami po tayong natatest ng sabay-sabay in different areas the strengths of our testing lies on our capacity to provide fast and accurate results para po magkaroon tayo nang time the intervention kaya po yan lagi kawin piyopok po kiyon dito sa Pilipino Red Cross lagi sabay-sabay tapat mag-test tayo na mag-test na asan mag-test mag-test tayo sa kung saan sa ang lugar yun yan po talaga yung mindset natin dito kasi dapat nalalaman natin kung nasaan po yung kalaban at dapat kapag na test natin sila mag-positive sila alang din nila kung saan sila pupunta right now we have 14 molecular laboratories strategically located nationwide kaya kahit saan ka pumunta sa Pilipinas ngayon may malakita kang Pilipin Red Cross ready to test your samples ready to give you advice if everyone positive ka and tumutulong po tayo ng government units for their own community quarantine protocols and testing efforts po our capacity right now is at 48,000 kaya nakakalungkot na medyo mababa pa nintalagay yung testing natin dito sa Pilipinas underutilize po kami sa toto lang pero kahit na ganun we're still developing new technologies and we will continue to expand in the months to come. I would just like to share this kasi gusto kong bakita din nyo kumpami historian ng response ng Red Cross sa COVID response is closely associated sa story din ng UP madami UP graduates tumutulong sa min this is Dr. Diana Radoa a graduate of MBB so panas kaming galing MBB teacher namin dati si Dr. Saloma isa po siya sa mga ginsultantan to introduce a game changer in testing so we introduced the saliva testing this year po so we believe that through the saliva testing we could give quick and safe testing protocol that on invasive very accurate and as accurate as our swab maganda po kasi sa saliva testing madali siyang gawin nag-co-collecta lang tayo ng lawy at bilang isang dati kong doctors to the barrios napaka sobrang na appreciate your initiatives na to na Chairman Gordon kasi Dr. Radoa kasi ngayong po nakapag test na kami kahit yung mga nasa bundok kahit yung mga nasa islam because of the stability of our sample tinakaya po natin silang i-test so bonation-wide na po ang hagip ang sacop ng ating mga testing efforts wala na po napag-iwanan kung gusto mag-test anywhere in the Philippines basta kaya natin ma-instructan on how to properly collect the saliva how to properly transport the saliva kaya natin ibangka yung plan na yan nag-agawa na po natin and I think this has been a game changer kasi kahit saan pwede tayo mag saliva testing we have established collection sites all over Metro Manila in strategic locations din traffic areas mga malls mga simbahan mga parting lot na malalaki para safely makapunta yung mga tao makapag-test po sila nilalapit na po natin yung testing sa mga tao para po sila po mismo makaroon initiative and good behavior pa-positive behavior towards testing kahit po na malaki na po yung aambang na philip indra dyo sa testing we will continue to expand our efforts right now we are planning to open five more molecular monitorization may gusto namin talaga lahat ng isla ng philipinas may philipin breast molecular testing center and we have been in close partnership with the national government in different research institutions even with the philipin genome center in helping po na makabigay ng sample para continuously makatulong po sa surveillance efforts ng philipins sa mga bagong variants natin ang COVID-19 so yan po yung naging efforts namin sa testing next po tayo sa isolation so for isolation as a community doctor before na doctors to the barrios na niniwala po ako na yung communities napat yan po yung pinakabag pagpapagaling sa isang patient pag hindi mo sila enoprute mas naalagaan sila ng mga pamilya nila kasama nila sa community at pasabilis po yung paggaling nila kaya po yung philipin breast breast para umigos kami sa paunta tayo ng mega isolation facilities and establish multiple community isolation units in partnership with our communities barang guys and also the private sector ito na po yung bagong big four para sa aking dahil nang magtawag po kami ng partners ito po yung apat nakakagadlumbati po sa amin to partner with the philipin just to establish pa ng isolation units for positive patients na mild and asymptomatic po na stable po yung status nila so kailangan lang talaga ihiwalay sila so lasal po with Benil UP at NIO and Adamson so na yan po yung mga unang apat na aming isolation unit we want to make sure that we are giving the highest quality of care to our patients and we make sure that they are comfortable gusto namin pagpumunta sila sa isolation unit masaya sila may dignity at para may encourage na ibang tao na walang nakakakot magpaisolit dahil na alagaan ka kompleto po sila sa pagkain naka aircon may HEPA filters at binabantayan po nang ating mga doctors at nurses ito po yung mga contribution at in partnership with the different sectors at hindi po yung ginagawa mag-isan ng philipin Red Cross so kompleto po yan with emergency systems also may mga ambulance po tayo na naka standby may mga nurses may mga emergency medications for immediate interventions in case magtoxic po yung mga paciente natin we also want to preserve dignity so gusto na natin kompleto tayo sa wash facilities na alalakon natin pinapagalitan kami di chairman kasi ayaw niya na nakatabu yung paciente gusto niya naka shower gusto niya nakabidate kasi ayaw nilang na fisiil na padang kawa sila gusto nila padang nakakotel gusto nila padang glamping ng level ng alaga na binibigay natin sa ating mga isolation unit na replicate po natin to when UP called us sabi lang kag-gusto din namin magtany na isolation unit agad-agad po pumunta po yung mga volunteers we have volunteer doctors from UP this is Dr. Michael T and Dr. Pauline Ubyal graduates also of UP so nakatayaw po kami ng isolation unit sa ating dormitory po sa UP Deleman Lasal also converted some of its classroom and one pool building po for our isolation so to cater to the city of Manila and Adamson also so dito po natin nilalaga yung mga frontliners madami po kasi tayo pang health worker yung walang mapuntahan after getting COVID sila pa yung walang matakbukan walang ma-isolitan kaya po nagbigay po kami ng dedicated facility for them para makapag-house ng mga volunteers natin mga health workers and other frontliners po and recently po we open facilities po in science high schools so ito po sa Makati Science High School ngayon po nadevelop kami dito sa Mandalo yung even other LGUs so basta po mga public spaces at mataas po yung number of infected patients po sa isang area tatayo po kami na isolation unit to help in their community's response alaga po natin yung mga nagtaka COVID mayan silang quarantine care package so para silang may give pack pag nakapasak po sa ating isolation unit at lahat po yan binibigay natin they have their own monitoring equipment and also food and also psychosocial support so nagpapamas kami nagpapabingdo kami tomorrow may pageant sa isang isolation unit namin para lang hindi silang mainip sa dami nila doon nagkatayo na po kami ng other activities to make sure that they're safe they're healthy and they're happy while being quarantine po sa ating mga isolation unit so next po we want to treat patients with COVID so I will share this video po which will feature our emergency field hospital Noelle there's no sound Noelle ah yes po asige po hindi ba na yung yunig po oh we can't hear we have phones on I'll relate na lang po siguro so this is our emergency field hospital established in the long center of the Philippines so partnership po yan and we were able to establish an 1810 complex po to cater to mild, moderate and severe patients requiring low auto flow so pag po kasi mga toxic patients like mga may comorbids mga senior citizens hindi na po sila pwedeng kumasak sa isolation unit so what we did is we established extension hospitals po and this one is the biggest center 1810 po yan with 64-100 bed capacity complete with nurses doctors emergency oxygen systems po and ang maganda po dito partner to with the hospital so kailangan po na emergency care kailangan big lang may ilagay sa ICU we can immediately refer to them right now po we have 96 medical tents deployed nationwide supporting 28 hospitals and right now po kahapun lang nabubokas kami sa Cebu which is one of the hot spots right now in the next two weeks po we are establishing 50-bed capacity hospital naman po sa Bataab which is another hot spot of COVID and today po kahapun lang ay kanina po matapos na po ang emergency hospital extension po sa Cebu so patulay po ang Philippine direct po sa po ko-provide po na mga medical na tantas na po magpukayong matakot komportable kaya yan okay kaya yan sa mga medical tent komportable po yan dahil naka airpond yan naka filter katawag namin yung glamping kasi nagkatanin pa kami ng halaman sa paliget po padang complete psychosocial ano biopsychosocial treatment for our patients and the response has been very positive kasi ang ayaw na ayaw po talaga namin at lagi kaming siya sabi na chairman gordo ng ayaw natin nakahandusa yung mga paciente sa labas ang emergency room yung ayaw natin yung nawawalan sila ng pagasa so gusto po natin through our emergency field hospital and medical tent initiative may laban po yung bawat ipinipino yung mga kailangan yung mga kailangan baka pasap sa hospital na ipapasap ko natin kagal so continuous lang po yung deployment natin dito and we will continue to support different hospitals right now we are acquiring 100 more units of this medical field hospitals to support other hospitals nang mag-request pa po sa atin because also convert this tents po into isolation units into vaccination centers and other COVID-19 health response projects po okay so less po is the vaccination efforts so we are now establishing the PRC Baccuna Centers Trivia po muna bago ko mag-proceed so in 1939 po the Philippine Red Cross the Philippines donated vaccines po para mag-address na isang epidemic din po sa Republic of China through the Philippine Red Cross and the vaccines were produced by the University of the Philippines so Philippine Red Cross yung nagpadala yung tiang gumawa at gobyarno po ng Pilipinas yung nagpamigayman so ganun po sa UP at sa National Government Response at sana po ganun pa din po ngayon habang we're fighting this COVID-19 pandemic so the three main approaches try to of the Philippine Red Cross is to establish Baccuna Centers to deploy vaccination teams to our to different LGUs support na natin sila and to deploy mobile vaccination clinics for the PRC Baccuna Centers po ito na po yung mga natayon natin so madami na po all over NCR Luzon Visayas and Mindanao po sa NCR meron na po tayong Sampo sa Luzon po may lima na may isa na po sa Visayas at may dalawa po sa Mindanao and right now po nadagdagan pa po yung ngayon sorry hindi po updated meron na po tayong bagong 4 sa Cebu alone Cebu Province alone at saka patlupang bago sa Mindanao okay so ganun po yung itura ng ating mga vaccination site and our vaccination site fully complies with the National Vaccine Deployment Plan and other existing guidelines po so gusto natin closely close coordination ties with the government para lahat ng nabakunaan sa Philippine Red Cross na re-register po sa National Vaccine Registry so gusto natin highest quality of care so gusto natin para pagdandyan sila masaya silang na sa Philippine Red Cross nila lang akalimutan yung experience nila sa vaccination bakit po ganun kasi we want to make sure that through their experience baka kwento nila sa iba na ang sadap magpabakuna sa Philippine Red Cross tada magpabakuna tayo and that is our little contribution into promoting vaccine confidence here in our country so tulay-tulay po yung paggawa namin so mayanong kami sa Manila sa Tarlac, sa Bulacan at sa iba-iba po ang lugar right now po we are also deploying PRC vaccination teams to LGU-operated bakuna centers weekly po mayanong kaming training para maturuan gusto mag-volunteer sa mga bakuna center and we have actually been instrumental in making sure na yung mga underboard natin na mga doctor nurses pagwala silang ginan but they help either as health education promoters at saka iba po pwede pa nilang gawin sa bakuna center to support our licensed doctors and our licensed nurses through our strong volunteerism speeded po sa Philippine Red Cross right now 1,110 individuals po yung sabay-sabay na tumutulong to augment different LGUs po so ito po yung sa palawan sa Marikina, sa San Pablo sa Navotas at sa iba po ang lugar okay and last po we are currently in the vaccine clinics I think ito po yung napapanawad ni recently sa mga news and our goal is to deploy mobile vaccine clinics all over the Philippines right now po we are actively operating sa Marikina Mandaluyong Navotas Lapulapo and Mandaue City yes yesterday po we launched sa Batangas Cavite Laguna and tomorrow po mag-launch kami sa Bulacan and Tamanava area so tuloy-tuloy po yung pagtakbo na mga bakuna bus natin dahil ang gusto natin ilapik na po yung bakuna mismo para hindi magpabakuna yung mga senior citiesan yung hindi na po kailangan mamasahit yung mga PWD pwede ng puntaan sa bahay through our mobile vaccination clinic sa ito po yung itchura niya sa Marikina po ang dinagawa dyan we deploy the mobile vaccination clinic in industrial areas so yung mga arawan yung mga contractual workers natin yung mga pag mag-e-CQ sila talagin tinatamaan dahil wala silang trabaho natin sa parking lahat ng mga workers na labas nabakuna natin sila we also deploy this in the VOTA so sa nabotas naman po naging story dyan ano sa Fisherman port no so siyemple po ang araw nang iisda yung mga tao hindi sila nakapagpabakuna so inaabangan na po natin sila sa port tapos ang kapan hanggang w operations pagdating po mga manginisda binabakuna natin sila so yung po sa Mandalu yung po we deploy our mobile urban poor communities and also sa mga correctionals and jails po to help vaccinate people deprived of liberty so yung mga nakakulung po natin mga kasamahan na alam natin magiging focus na ng infection pag binagkakuvid sa kanila binabakuna handin po natin katat so ito po yung sa mga Sibu chapter po namin all of these services are concentrated in our 1158 hotline so it's a one-stop shop for Red Cross COVID-19 services so pag gusto nipong magpabakuna gusto nipong magpatulong sa isolation 1158 po yun gusto nipong magpates 1158 po yun and this was commissioned by Chairman Gordon Senator Gordon dahil gusto nyo hindi nalilito yung mga tao gusto nya simple lang pag may problema katawagan mo kami sa 1158 so do not hesitate to contact our hotline numbers kung meron po kaming may ito tulong sa inyo madami po yung kwento po kasi ng pandem we know that it is a disaster but we also want to we want to we are hoping that it will also be a story of hope gusto namin saan maging story ayan ang pagasa at gusto ko po saan na kasama yung Filipino Red Cross sa story ng Bawang Pilipino kung paano po tayo ba bangang dito madami patapusta po yung oras po madami pa saan akong gusto ikwento gusto kung ikwento sa inyo kung paano kami tumutulong sa humanitarian relief pag mga ka-ACQ wala nga mga tayo mga tao tumutulong po kami dyan umiikot po yung mga disaster bus namin to what pang ayung ACQ na mga hot meals sa maraming tao so nagpabumili po si Chairman Gordon ng 23 ayan yung parang 23 na bosses at food trucks umiikot tayo sa Metro Manila right now that we have PCQ para po tulungan yung mga nagugutong nung nagkasunog po sa PGH nand jad din po yung Philippine Red Cross nagpahilang kami ng fans nagpapumulong kami sa mga ambulansya at patulay po kami tutulong sa Philippine General Hospital kung kakailangan hindi po kami at last po we will continue to be a beacon of hope yung mga LSI's natin we will continue to provide them assistance hanggang matapos po yung pandemic okay bago po kong magtapos gusto ko saan ang iannounce that the Philippine Red Cross will sponsor will help will sponsor a bus visit po so pupunta po kami sa UP Manila next week so we have been in close coordination with the Chancellor's Office of UP Manila through Dr. Arlene Samaniego so mga vacunahan din po namin yung mga frontline workers na hindi pa nabakunahan mga support staff ng hospital health sciences faculty and administrators po nipasok ko sa priority group para mabakunahan nabi po nila so pupunta po ating mobile vaccination boss at UP Manila para mabakunahan po kayong lahat unprotectahan po kayo at ang yung mga pag-media so mga namin mga namin salamat po sana po matapos po natin kong pandemic nang magkakasama wala magkakasakit asan aligta sa po kayong lahat at sa dulo po nandito po lagi ang Philippine Red Cross we will always be first okay, thank you Dr. Noelle Bernardo I don't know I'm having another moment Noelle I'm so proud of you ito yung mga ano parang in the future dapat mag secretary of wealth ay kita nila yung complexity anong kailangan doen and they have feel a sense of what people really need I'd also like to just thank Mark Abrigo who couldn't join us today actually Noelle Mark has been also on the ground helping with the hospitals and everything and the team the whole team of the Red Cross and of course saludo po tayo Chairman Senator Richard Gordon for all the work that he's done nang kakovid na lahat na pero anjum pa rin yung Red Cross so maraming salamat Noelle okay, we're going to call everyone back in for a quick panel and we're kind of running out of time but we'll manage so let's have Noelle back Felix let's have Ted Professor Sinch and VP Nanny Pernia and I think Raymond's going to ask for the answers first or should we show the PSA first Raymond? Let's do the PSA Dr. Susie okay, so we have our usual campaign for for vaccination let's go with TVP look magpabakuna na kayo tayo wala ang problema po ang mga ang mula na ako e talaga dahil malku kayo magpapabakuna ako okay, thank you very much TVP for that public service announcement and we'll keep on giving you those public service announcements just as part of our campaign for vaccination so Raymond let's go to answering the questions that you put on our poll go ahead Thank you Dr. Susie but before that we'd like to mention also that the COVID communication public service announcements are one of it's just one of the many outputs of UP study and title communicating COVID-19 in post quarantine Philippines the study is headed by our own VP for public affairs Dr. Nanny Pernia and funded by the DOST, PCHRD and the DOH through the AHEAD HSPR project okay may we have the mentee there we go okay first question po ang lambda variant ay is it a variant of interest variant of concern or a variant of high consequence marami po nag-indicate na it's a variant of interest po we'd like Dr. Saloma to reiterate po what she mentioned earlier So based on the WHO the lambda variant is a variant of interest Thank you so much Dr. Saloma and then for question number two the lambda variant ang lambda variant ay inakalang umpisa sa China, Brazil, UK, South Africa or Peru most of our respondents chose Peru and the right answer po Dr. Saloma of course Peru okay thank you po over to you Dr. Suzie let's start the ball rolling with the panel discussion okay thank you very much so we have our panelists here and I think in the interest of time Raymond why don't we go to your upvoted question from the audience because all of the presentations were very very clear and I think we want I saw a number of interesting questions but Raymond what question did you choose? so this question comes from Gabriel de Guzman and I'd like to throw it to our NTF Special Advisor Dr. Ted Herbosa what are the current approaches being done by the LGUs now in light of what happened recently in several municipalities wherein there were huge crowds like in Las Pinyas and other LGUs po Dr. Ted okay the huge crowd that we're seeing were actually brought about by fake news I don't think I think that happened because the government was laughing at anything the policy is pre-registered people pre-registration followed by going on your schedule once implicated but there are as I said it's a complex emergency and there are people out there out to make the government look bad and in effect they create super spreader events the way those people actually on video stayed so close to each other and they're using and pulling brings a lot of suspicion as to who generated such activity and you all know who I'm talking about but I think after that episode and then correction there is no such thing as a vaccine passport that will disallow people who are not vaccinated from getting employed nag calm down on people and people becoming So again very careful this is an example of what fake news can do and drive us down to the turmoil and to more chaos. So make sure we get the correct information, verify facts and then ask competent people. Ochok, I think just to add to that, Ted, parang importantin ang frontliners natin, especially those who are listening to us now, are able to communicate the information to the public. Actually, kait anong gawin nyo, nakikinigsay nyo ang mga taong ino. So malaki talaga yung puerosang frontliners natin against misinformation. Raymond, one more question I think because we're reaching the top of the hour. What do you have? Yes, this one will pose it again to PGC Executive Director, Dr. Saloma. Dr. Saloma with so marami na pung variants coming in very rapidly. How confident is the government in terms of being able to keep up with the genomic sequencing work that needs to be done? What with all of the variants coming in, Dr. Saloma? So I'm very happy to share to you, Dr. Raymond, that the government has responded to the call of extending our genomic surveillance capability. So before the end of the year, we hope to have a capability to do 350 a week in Visayas and also in Indanao through the new PPGC network. So nilabas na po ng BBM ang check-in kahapon and we are now in the process of procurement and that's really, really a very, very good use. So if we can do first for COVID, they will be able to have these next generation sequencing machines. I'm going forward po hindi lang dito dahil na po for facility o PGC's na Visayas and Indanao, kahit po yung mga ibang cases, even for let's say cancer transcriptomics and more complex genome sequencing analysis, makapabigilad na po yung ating Visayas and Indanao AIS. Wow, thank you very much. I think that's great news and for the young ones who are listening to us now, you should all start studying biotechnology, yan na yung mga bagong, bagong kailangan ng bansa natin. All right, I think Raymond, we have to put our evaluation up and then we're going to ask our panelists to just say a few words, their last few words to the audience. So let's go first to our evaluation Raymond. Thank you. This poll will show at least for those who are in our Zoom webinar po. We are still numbering a little over 1750. We'll assess po your learnings and essentially the content that was delivered for this webinar. I'll read the following statements and for those who are still in the Zoom call, please log in and your answers po, no? We are seeing nearly or lagpas na po 200 respondents for our fun poll for our assessment and we hope that there will be more of our more than 1700 still in the Zoom webinar to answer. The first statement, panelists demonstrated thorough knowledge of the topic. The panelists, second, the panelists were well prepared and organized. Third, the panelists spoke clearly and audibly. Fourth, the panelists used appropriate language with technical medical jargon adequately explained. And number five, the panelists contributed to new perspectives and knowledge on managing various key COVID-19 health issues. Dr. Susie. Okay, thank you very much, Raymond. We're going to ask our panelists now to say a few words very short. What are your parting words to our frontliners who are watching? So we're going to start first with Dr. Noel Bernardo. Maraming salamat po pala sa pag-impact sa Philippine Red Cross. No? Alam niyo po, tama si Dr. Susie, pag-good kami dito. Kadang aro-alo kami, BCB, marami kami ginagawa. Pero yung malgantong mga webiners po sobrang na-appreciate namin kasi nagkakaroon kami na pagkakataon to correct the misconceptions of people about COVID-19. And also, on the part of Philippine Red Cross, we offer opportunities for people to contribute na makatulog po. At bawat po ng minuto na ginagugul namin dito, baka isang buhay yung naliligtas po namin. So maraming-maraming salamat po. Kami po sa Philippine Red Cross ang gusto lang namin, may laban yung bawat Filipino. Our duty is to alleviate human suffering and we will always be there to help the Philippine government and different partner groups po as they respond to this pandemic. Maraming-maraming salamat po. Thank you very much, Dr. Noel Bernardo. Let's have Felix Dan Lopez. Felix, go ahead. Sure. So earlier, perhaps as a parting message earlier, see Dr. Ted share the four Cs of disaster recovery. I'd like to tweak that a bit and end with the three Cs of how we can recover as one nation. The first one is really collaboration, which is part of the four Cs earlier of Dr. Ted na. The partnership, multi-sexual partnership, really different groups reaching out together, joining together towards recovery. So that's the first one. Second one, which I would like to put there, would really be clarity. I think we should be more intentional from the different sectors, the powers that be. I think we should be more clear in terms of the overall approach and strategy. But the last one and which I think is the most important, the third C for me would have to be compassion or empathy or malasakit. I would always recall an adage. It says that if you want to lead yourself, then use your head. But if you want to lead others, then use your heart. So there, for me, it's really collaboration, clarity, and compassion. And this will definitely lead us to recovery. I salute all of the frontliners here, similar to the frontliners at Cebu Pacific. All of the frontliners in the call and those who are not in the call, we salute you and we thank you. Thank you very much. That's Felix Anlopis of Cebu Pacific. Let's go to Dr. Ted Urbosa, the Special Advisor of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 Ted. Thank you, Susie. I think my final words is really amplified by Dr. Noel Bernardo, the Red Cross, which is volunteerism and partnership brought about by the private sector. I think it is a time for our Filipinos to actually unite. Let us move together in solidarity. We are not in opposition with each other. Whatever your color is, we are still fighting the same enemy and it is a virus. And if only we had more solidarity, I think we will be successful in fighting this pandemic. With that, I think thank you really to stop COVID deaths for really bringing this information to the people, the clarity that you are able to do every Friday, and of course, the compassion to make sure that we save Filipino lives together. Thank you, Susie, and thank you to the team. Thank you very much, Ted. We'd like to call on Professor Sintia Saloma of the Philippine Genome Center. Professor Sintia, go ahead. I would just would like to emphasize that if we have to recover in this pandemic, as a nation, all hands of deck mo talaga, no? So we bring to the table the talent of the solitino, the best of our frontliners, the best of our policymakers, the best of the private and public sectors, our volunteers, as a nation, sama-sama to tayo, na lalabaman ko natin ito. And I'm very, very thankful to all our frontliners and to our communicators for bringing this effort to the public because it's really, really important that we are united in our fight against this pandemic. Magaling salamat ko. Thank you very much. It's Professor Sintia Saloma of the Philippine Genome Center. And last but not the least, our Vice President of the University of the Philippines, VP Neni Pernia. Neni. Yes, thank you. I'd like to, very short lang, I'd like to add to what Dr. Sintia Saloma said by saying that let us trust our scientists and let us applaud them because we really do have the best in the world. And if we cooperate and if we stop listening to fake information and stop in the sharing of this, then we are really on the road to some kind of light after this COVID. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's Neni Pernia, VP of the University of the Philippines. For our closing remarks, we have none other than the Dean of the UP College of Medicine, Dr. Charlotte Chong. Charlotte, go ahead. Thank you, Susie. First, I'd like to thank you for inviting me to give the closing remarks. Again, it's been a very wonderful and very fruitful webinar number 66 for Stop COVID. We started off with VP Neni Pernia talking to us about the key information that may be important for COVID. And that would be, of course, being able to say that we need to be vigilant, to wear a mask, to be physically distant from each other, to be kind, to have good ventilation, to be able to deliver food and not be afraid that as long as we wash our hands, that children can be affected, that super spreaders can be around. And of course, that long COVID can be possible and that fake news on social media really are inimical to public health campaigns. And that mutations will always happen and that variance of concern or variance of interest will always be here with us, but bakuna is love. And therefore, according to Pope Francis, we should be able to survive this if we are able to show kindness to each other and compassion. Thank you to Professor Sincha Saloma for her expert presentation. Now we understand a lot more about the Delta variant and, of course, the Lambda variant. And she presented us a really very important data on where it came from, this Lambda variant from Peru, and that although we have one case of Lambda variant in the Philippines, we are still not problematics like other countries, but therefore we have to still stick to the protocols and that we need to be able to support our scientists at the Philippine Genome Center. And thanks to the government for the additional upcoming support. We are able to mount a very good response in terms of being able to do surveillance of all the different variants for COVID. Doctor, of course, Ted, her boss are EVP and, of course, the one who actually is there to always welcome all the vaccines coming from all over the world here to show us that we are on track. October to November, we'll be able to ramp up even more from maybe 750,000 vaccinations per day, maybe a million per day is a target and we should be able to mount a very good campaign so that we are able to reach the 70% of the population that's needed before we perhaps also look at boosters in the future and be able to go back to our new normal. And thanks, of course, to VP for Human Resources, Mr. Felix Dan Lopez for showing us how Sibu Pacifica sa Kampani has really helped our country in our response to this pandemic, being able to transport all the vaccines from the different countries and also be able to transport these to the provinces and show us how a private company can really partner with government in order to help the country and the Filipino people be able to surmount this virus. Thank you to our doctor to the barrio, Dr. Noel Bernardo, who gives us hope as a young doctor volunteering his services to the Philippine Red Cross. We have seen how the Philippine Red Cross has helped in so many ways from testing to field hospitals to be able to back to centers and even mobile vacuna centers. And we will wait for you when you visit UP Manila to vaccinate the last UP people who have not been vaccinated in our community here at UP. So, it's very heartening that UP we've been able to really help our country in so many ways and also this top COVID webinar is an example of that. We continue to be hopeful because hopefully is with us and therefore I'd like to echo the fact that again, vacuna is love. We're proud to be Filipinos. Hope begins with all of us, all hands on deck. And I would like to say from my end, kaya natin ito. Maraming manami, salamat po. Thank you very much. Again, very inspiring from none other than the Dean of the UP College of Medicine, Dr. Sharma Chong. Okay, so next week, before I say that, before I go into next week Raymond, we have someone in our audience who needs help for a, ano ba yung nakita ko, 98, 96-year-old? Maybe you can call 1158 or maybe you can put in the chat a message directly to Noel Bernardo so that you could be helped. So parang there's a patient who needs help. All right, so next week, don't miss it. We have andanang topic natin, fully vaccinated na o bakit positive ako sa RT-PCR. So we are going to talk about breakthrough infections and I think for many of you, for our health workers, this is an issue. You're vaccinated. I'm hearing from so many of my friends and from so many of our colleagues that our health workers are getting re-infected, but they're okay. Mahildang yung symptoms nila, pero nangyayarin na. So we are going to focus on you. We're going to talk about breakthrough infections and what we can do so that we can prevent this. We've heard a lot about the prevention, but we will talk about breakthrough infections. Okay, over to you Raymond. Thank you, Dr. Suzien. Thank you for that excellent wind up po for and synthesis from the Dean of the UP College of Medicine, Dean Charlotte Chong. Before we conclude our program, we'd like to acknowledge first the very hard working team behind the stop COVID-19 webinar series. This webinar series will not be possible without each and every one of you. So maraming-maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat. And then finally, all of our webinars po, all of our episodes, all 65 and thereafter after this webinar, we will also be archiving all of our webinars from 1 to 66, including this one after this episode po. So please tune in and log in po sa www.youtube.com. You look for the TV UP channel and you'll be able to see all 66 episodes for our webinar series. So this brings our webinar today, at least for today po, for mali to a close. We look forward to each and every one of you being able to join us during our regular Friday lunch date from 12 noon to 2 pm. It's a date! Together we can stop COVID-19. So keep safe, keep healthy, and see you online! I know you long for home, but I am here, you're not alone. I'll stay with you until the coast is clear. The other's pain, but for my fears. The other's lives, but for my tears. But right behind the mask, I look into myself and ask, do I have strength to carry on? Oh God, how long must this go on? And if you're here to keep me strong, I'm here to hold the line. I'll keep my hand until my hand. Just hold on to the word he gave. This time we'll come to pass, because this salvation makes the last. You'll carry you to see the break of day. The other's pain, but for my fears. The other's lives, but for my tears. But right behind the mask, I look into myself and ask, do I have strength to carry on? Oh God, how long must this go on? And if you're here to keep me strong, I'm here to hold the line. I'll keep my hand until my hand. Just hold on to the word he gave. The other's lives, but for my tears. But right behind the mask, I look into myself and ask, do I have strength to carry on? Oh God, how long must this go on? And if you're here to keep me strong, I'm here to hold the line. I'll keep my hand until my hand. Just hold on to the word he gave. The other's lives, but for my tears. But right behind the mask, I look into myself and ask, do I have strength to carry on?