Germainne Ambross S.

Ferreras

CoVid-19
Definition of Terms

1. Outbreak - the sudden or violent start of something unwelcome, such as war, disease,
etc.
2. SARS-CoV-2 – refers to the virus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2)
3. CoVid-19 – refers to the disease (Coronavirus disease)
4. Genomic - an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution,
mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all
of its genes.
5. Ecology - Ecology is defined as the branch of science that studies how people or organisms
relate to each other and their environment
6. Pandemic - (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world
7. Morbidity - the rate of disease in a population.
8. Mortality - the state of being subject to death.
9. Deterioration - the process of becoming progressively worse.
10. Social Cohesion - refers to the extent of connectedness and solidarity among groups in society.
11. Mitigation - the action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something.
12. Socioeconomic- is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by
social processes.

Information:

- Coronavirus disease or also known as CoVid-19 is an infectious sickness caused by a novel

coronavirus that is called SARS-CoV-2 short for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
2
- It was first reported in Wuhan, China on December of 2019
- Most of the first reported cases are stall owners, market employees, and regular customers of
the Wuhan South China Seafood Wholesale Market that is why they have believed that the
market may be the source of the virus or it helped to amplify the outbreak even more.
- The wholesale market was closed on January 1, 2020 due to its relation to the outbreak
- The genetic sequence of the virus was shared to the public on January 11-12 and it has been
said that there is an ecological origin from bat population which resulted from a study of the
cases from China and around the world.
- All available evidences suggests that it came from a natural or animal origin and many
researchers saw the genomic features of the virus and they have concluded that it was not a
laboratory constructed virus.
- Another evidence shows that other types of coronavirus like SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in 2003 was
also closely related to bat population. The viruses’ genetic relations gave a much more solid
conclusion that it was an ecological origin.
 - A number of investigations are made like, studies in human cases of their symptoms and
environmental samplings on the farm and marketplace in Wuhan as well as the animals that are
sold there to further understand where the virus came from.

Response and Actions (WHO)

 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, strategies:

- Contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease morbidity and mortality.
- Decrease the deterioration of human assets and rights, social cohesion and livelihoods.
- Protect, assist and advocate for refugees, internally displaced people, migrants and host
communities particularly vulnerable to the pandemic.

 How will they do it?

- They will seek help from national authorities to connect with the hard-to-reach communities.
- Raise awareness to the public regarding risks and mitigation measures to protect communities
and healthcare workers.
- Promotes global guidance and supports its operational adaptation for low-capacity &
humanitarian settings.
- Maintain access to other essential healthcare operations by adapting service delivery
approaches and providing training to health workers as well as their needed supplies.
- Support other Health Clusters and develop a multi-sectoral response to CoVid-19.
- Captures operational practice and learning to inform the evolving COVID-19 response.

 The World Health Organization created a dashboard showing the number of cases reported by
Country Health Clusters. Its main use was to simplify the monitoring in tracking the number of
cases around the world, funding status, bulletins, as well as GHRP indicator reporting and WHO
Monitoring Indicator Reporting.

CoVid-19 in the Philippines

Information:

- The first reported case was a 38-year-old female Chinese National from Wuhan on the 30 th of
January 2020 as said by the Philippine Department of Health.
- They confirmed that the first local transmission was on March 7, 2020.

Response and Action (Philippines)

- The government mounted a multi-sectoral response through the IATF (Interagency Task Force)
that is led by the Department of Health.
- Through the NATIONAL ACTION PLAN they aim to contain the virus and mitigate the
socioeconomic effects of the pandemic.
- The government have done various community quarantine that started in Metro manila and
later on sprung across the Philippines.
- They started with one testing lab named Reference Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and
now expanded its testing capacity with now, 100 certified testing labs in total as of May 7, 2020.
SOURCES:

https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1

- Overview and definition of the virus

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200423-sitrep-94-covid-
19.pdf?sfvrsn=b8304bf0_4

- First reported case, when and where, ecological origin

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-
coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

- How did they name the virus

https://www.who.int/health-cluster/news-and-events/news/COVID19/en/

- CoVid-19 response of WHO

https://www.who.int/philippines/emergencies/covid-19-in-the-philippines

- the start of CoVid-19 in the Philippines

https://www.who.int/philippines/news/feature-stories/detail/100-days-of-covid-19-in-the-philippines-
how-who-supported-the-philippine-response

- Philippines’ response to Covid-19