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Dr. Rontgene Solante, the head for Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at San Lazaro Hospital, recently said in a media interview that Covid-19 appears to be well on its way to reaching the endemic stage in the Philippines. This means that while the virus will remain in our midst, its presence does not overly disrupt people’s day-to-day lives.

To support his claim, Dr. Solante cited that Covid-19 cases are on the downtrend, that severe and critical infections have been minimal for several months, and that the health care utilization rate remains below 50 percent.

Meanwhile, late last month, President Bongbong Marcos, Jr. signed an executive order allowing for the voluntary wearing of face masks in both indoor and outdoor settings, except for healthcare facilities, medical transport vehicles, and all forms of public transportation. Soon after, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued similar guidelines covering private workplaces nationwide.

There are but some of many signs that we are truly in the final chapters of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hence, with the return to more ordinary times forthcoming, we need to take full stock of what should constitute our new normal and which parts of the way we lived throughout the pandemic need to continue once it ends.

And such an assessment should include the many Covid-19 quarantine and isolation facilities — dubbed as We Heal as One Centers, Ligtas Covid and Mega Ligtas Covid Centers — that had to be set up in the past two years. Their primary purpose may already be winding down now that the spread of Covid-19 is under control and fewer people are contracting it. Yet, there still remains an urgent need for dedicated spaces that can act as transitional shelters especially in times of natural calamities.

We suspect that many of these isolation facilities are no longer being utilized — or minimally, if it all, since most cases nowadays are asymptomatic or mild, and hence do not need hospital care. These spaces can quickly be put to good use by converting them to evacuation centers for families affected by the typhoons and other natural disasters that hit our country several times in a year. The floods caused by Typhoon Paeng and the Northern Luzon earthquakes in recent months only illustrate this persistent need.

Converting the isolation facilities would also help ease the pressure to utilize public schools as evacuation centers. This has been a common practice across many local government units, and is understandable since many communities do not have permanent structures that can act as emergency shelters. Yet, such a practice leads to the unwarranted disruption of our children’s learning and development. It also makes it even more difficult to return to normalcy during times of natural disasters.

In fact, the Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act (RA 10821) expressly limits the use of schools or child development centers for evacuation purposes only to cases where there is no other available place or structure. Should this be the case, the law further states that gymnasiums and activity centers shall be utilized first — with classrooms being deployed in this manner only as a last resort. Recently, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte issued a department order reiterating the provisions of RA 10821, emphasizing that schools may be used as evacuation centers for only 15 days.

Hence, instead of suspending classes indefinitely after a storm hits a locality, having the isolation facilities available for use by the displaced families, together with the multi-purpose courts or gymnasiums, will spare the schools, adhere to the provisions of RA 10821 and DepEd guidelines, and ensure the continuous education of our students.

During a recent budget hearing, Social Welfare Secretary Erwin Tulfo said that he already recommended to the President that permanent evacuation centers should be built in every city and municipality — which is a subject of several bills pending in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Perhaps the existing isolation facilities can already be utilized to help realize this recommendation.

Email: [email protected]| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara

Senator Sonny Angara has been in public service for 18 years — nine years as Representative of the lone district of Aurora, and nine as Senator. He has authored and sponsored more than 250 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate.

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