The Department of Health (DOH) Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) has deployed a total of five Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) teams that will provide psychosocial support to the communities of the 12 municipalities affected by the continuing eruptions of Taal Volcano.
“Disasters such as this can affect an individual’s emotional instability including stress reactions, anxiety and trauma. We have to assist these individuals and give them support and guidance in order for them to cope and be able to reorganize their lives,” said OIC-Regional Director Paula Paz M. Sydiongco.
The teams will be providing psychological first aid to affected evacuees, including senior citizens and persons with disabilities in the evacuation centers in the towns of Alitagtag, Balayan, Balete, Laurel, Agoncillo, San Nicolas, Talisay, San Jose and Tanauan in the province of Batangas.
“With the proper mental health support, they can be assisted with compassion, knowledge, and respect,” Sydiongco stated.
The MHPSS teams are composed of doctors, psychologists, health promotion officers and nurses trained in providing psychological first aid and mental health and psychosocial support.
To ensure that there will be no transmission of Covid-19, a mass vaccination was also conducted.
Mass vaccination
Secretary Francisco T. Duque III led the mass vaccination on Monday together with the Batangas provincial government were also conducted in the town of Agoncillo targeting around 1,200 Taal evacuees who were residing in the evacuation centers since July, 1, 2021.
The Batangas provincial disaster risk reduction and management office estimated about 1,034 families or 3,450 individuals are now in evacuation centers in Nasugbu, Balayan, Agoncillo, Balete, Laurel and Alitagtag.
At least 608 families or 2,230 individuals are staying with their relatives in nearby municipalities as of July 5, 2021.
Taal Volcano in the province of Batangas is still under Alert Level 3, which means there is magmatic unrest, or movement of magma that may further drive succeeding eruptions according to Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
The DOH also said evacuees will also be closely monitored using antigen tests and more vaccines will be allocated in areas affected by the unrest of Taal Volcano.
“Antigen test kits had been distributed already…allocation of vaccines will be increased,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online media forum on Monday.
Vergeire said that they expressed hope that “by vaccinating individuals and also monitoring them through antigen test and symptomatic monitoring, we would be able to prevent transmission.”
Dr. Voltaire Guadalupe, Center for Health Development (CHD) Region 4A, meanwhile, assured that Covid patients were already isolated since the start of the unrest.
“At present, there are only few cases. Our health workers already know them. There are no new cases reported so far,” Guadalupe said.
Guadalupe added that they would continue to vaccinate individuals eligible to receive anti-Covid shots.
According to the Department of Education, 16 schools are currently being used as evacuation centers.