Ate Glo: Alcala now SARS-free

ALCALA, Pangasinan — In a bid to ease public anxiety over Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), President Arroyo shook hands and mingled with the townsfolk of Alcala, Pangasinan yesterday after health authorities lifted a 14-day quarantine.

Accompanied by Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr., Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit and a host of local officials, the President greeted jubilant Alcala townsfolk, especially residents of Barangay Vacante, and shook hands with them. She said she is hoping for an end to the discrimination they have experienced from neighboring towns and villages.

Mrs. Arroyo walked into the town without wearing a mask and mingled freely with residents.

"Do not be afraid, we are always beside you," Mrs. Arroyo told Alcala folk who were quarantined after Adela Catalon and her father Mauricio, residents of Barangay Vacante, were confirmed to have been infected by the SARS virus.

"Now you can rest easy because... the mandatory quarantine has been lifted now that it has been proven… that Barangay Vacante, Alcala, Pangasinan is free of SARS," she added.

The President urged the public not to discriminate against Filipinos who have been quarantined to determine if they contracted SARS and, if so, to stop the spread of the virus.

"We are doing everything to overcome the crisis," the President said, urging the public to vigorously take part in all the government’s programs to fight SARS.

"I am certain we can pull through this crisis as the people of Vacante have pulled through this crisis and avert the spread of SARS," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo also ordered the release of P2 million from the Agrarian Reform Fund to help the town, headed by Mayor Juanito Collado, ease the dislocation experienced during the quarantine period.

She also named Agrarian Reform Secretary Roberto Pagdanganan to the SARS crisis management committee she created last week through Executive Order 201.

Jubilant Alcala

Alcala residents greeted the President’s announcement with thunderous applause and a blaring brass band as Dayrit announced that he was officially lifting the quarantine imposed on them following the death of the Catalons.

Adela, a nursing aide based in Toronto, contracted SARS from her roommate who got the disease from her parents.

Adela returned on April 4 to find an oncologist for cancer-stricken Mauricio but was taken ill a few days later with SARS symptoms. She died on April 14, followed by Mauricio a few days later.

"Adela and her father died in the clutches of an intense love between a father and a daughter," the President said.

Alcala was quarantined on Holy Week after four people who had close contact with Adela and Mauricio were also quarantined. The traditional town fiesta was also postponed for two weeks.

In lifting the quarantine yesterday, Dayrit said Department of Health (DOH) Regional Director Eduardo Janairo said not one among those quarantined showed signs of the dreaded SARS virus.

Dayrit said the people of Barangay Vacante showed a very good example in controlling the disease.

Local officials

For his part, De Venecia, who represents the province’s fourth district, praised the residents of Barangay Vacante for "how well they coped and how they did not submit to hysteria."

"Barangay Vacante is SARS-free, and so is the entire Pangasinan province," De Venecia said, reiterating that World Health Organization representative Jean-Marc Olive has stressed that the country is not on the WHO’s list of SARS countries.

De Venecia said the WHO representative told them the country was never on the list because those listed are countries with SARS cases that are locally transmitted in the communities. "The Philippines has no cases of local transmission," the Speaker said.

Aside from de Venecia and Dayrit, other local officials present at the ceremonies were Collado, Gov. Victor Agbayani, Vice Gov.r Oscar Lambino, Representatives Mark Cojuangco and Generoso Tulaga and provincial board member Saffe Villar.

National SARS Consciousness Week

Meanwhile, Mrs Arroyo declared May 5 to 9 as "National SARS Consciousness and Clean-up Week," to help implement EO 201 that she signed last week.

Among the guidelines under the EO are:

• To prevent and minimize the entry of imported SARS case into the country.

• To prevent and minimize the local spread of SARS through the quarantine of suspects.

• To prevent or minimize mortality.

• To educate the public on SARS prevention and control and minimize public anxiety.

• To coordinate with the appropriate agencies in the mitigation of the non-health consequences of SARS, like tourism, trade and industry, labor and employment, deployment of OFWs.

Mrs. Arroyo also said that under EO 201, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) will answer up to P100,000 in hospital expenses of any public health worker who may contract SARS.

Even private hospital workers will get the same amount if he or she gets sick of SARS. Philhealth members or their dependents will receive hospitalization benefits amounting to P50,000.