New DOH-6 chief seeks more collaborations vs COVID-19

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The new head of the Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) said Monday that he hopes to involve more sectors in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), among other health causes, in the months and years to come.

Dr. Adriano Suba-an made a surprise appearance during the DOH-WV CHD’s regular online program “Isyung Bakuna” to meet the public and answer questions.

Prior to being assigned to Western Visayas, Suba-an was Supervising Technical Director of the Field Implementation Coordination Team (FICT) for Visayas and Mindanao.

He also held positions in other regions, starting with the DOH as Assistant Regional Director (ARD) for the National Capital Region and Northern Mindanao CHDs, and previously served as officer-in-charge of the Northern Mindanao CHD.

During the virtual presser, Suba-an described the region’s culture, places, and people to be “beautiful”, and also shared his appreciation for the local chief executives (LCEs).

He cited meeting personally with Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas and Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. as well as speaking to other LCEs via text message and phone call. He described them as “very responsive and supportive, and willing to listen”.

The chief concern of almost all LCEs in the region, according to Suba-an, were logistics, especially in vaccine delivery.

“It is a beautiful place, it has a very rich culture, and the people are smiling people. In my exposure to your elected officials, they are also articulate. They don’t cover what needs to be surfaced, and that I really appreciate a lot. It speaks actually of a professional, educated population of Western Visayas, which does not fear to express out, and also showcasing the rich history of your place,” Suba-an said.

Suba-an also shared his recent visits to public and private hospitals, where he observed that many health care workers were still hesitant to get their COVID-19 vaccine due to various reasons, including history of allergies and prior COVID-19 infections.

To address vaccine hesitancy, he said that the DOH-WV CHD will push for a more “individualized” approach.

While he did not state the full extent of this approach, he cited an example with health care frontliners where the regional office will host a vaccination forum with speakers who will encourage them to take the vaccine as they are the “most important” due to their direct exposure to patients.

He also cited as an example the recent visit of Israeli health officials who shared their best practices with the DOH.

According to Our World in Data, Israel has administered 10.8 million doses to 5.17 million residents, or 57.2 percent of its total population.

The Middle Eastern nation has relaxed restrictions since earlier in February and is set to reopen to vaccinated foreign tourists on August 1.

Suba-an said that his general plan against COVID-19 in the region would involve increased collaboration with government and private sectors, as well as their established “support structure”.

“The fight against COVID-19 cannot only be done by the health sector. We need the support from the other sectors as well. We need the support coming from the government, from the private sectors, and what we call the support structure that we have here in Western Visayas. We need to work as one with clarity of purpose and that is to fight COVID-19, and in fighting COVID-19, our purpose is to decrease the number of cases and increase our response capacity to fight COVID-19,” he said.

Suba-an he will “keep seeing” everyone “for months and years to come”, not just for COVID-19 but for other concerns as well.

“We are looking forward with our active collaboration in the days and months to come. I know we’ll be engaging each other for a number of months and even years, because the vaccination coverage will not just happen overnight. It will be an extended number of months and years to cover at least 70 percent of our population with the COVID-19 vaccination. During that period, we need really the support of everyone,” he said.