Davao City: Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte ordered on February 9 the establishment and operation of the reorganized Davao City Task Force on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) effective immediately.
She noted in her Executive Order (EO) No. 4-A, Series of 2021, known as “An Order Establishing And Operationalizing The Reorganized Davao City Task Force On COVID-19,” that there is already a reconstituted Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF)-National Task Force Organization Structure and a subsequent reorganization of the RTF 11 for the effective implementation of Phase 3 of the National Action Plan (NAP) against COVID-19.
But Mayor Duterte said, “In order to address and provide more responsive and efficient response to COVID-19 in the City, there is a need to localize the reorganization of RTF (Regional Task Force) 11 by reorganizing the existing DCTF on COVID-19 and operationalizing the same to align with the reorganized regional counterpart and the national action plan.”
The Davao City Task Force on COVID-19 and Other Public Health Emergencies was created on March 13 last year through EO No. 8.
In EO 4-A, the mayor ordered the following:
- Operational framework – outcomes (reduced transmission, adequate health system capacity, sufficient vaccine for COVID-19, socio-economic recovery, and food security); intermediate outcomes (reduced case and transmission, improved health system, implemented National COVID-19 Vaccine Program, safe and sufficient transportation, reduced unemployment and underemployment rates, ensured business and service continuity, and mitigated socioeconomic contraction);
- Main strategies – response (prevent, detect – test, treat, surveillance, isolate/quarantine, treat, psychosocial support, and management of the dead); vaccination (assess and plan, prepare, and execute); recovery – (socio-economic recovery and food security;
- Core strategies -response (prevent, detect, isolate, treat) and vaccination (assess and plan, prepare, and execute); recovery – social recovery (economic recovery), and food security.
The reorganized Davao City Task Force on COVID-19 structure will be led by the city mayor as chairperson while directly under her are the operations centers A, B, and C. The response cluster, vaccine cluster, and recovery cluster.
The operations center, meanwhile, will be headed by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office. Under it are the data management, monitoring and supervision, public hotline, and private hotlines for the response for cluster members.
The response cluster, which is also the operations center A, is grouped into preventions/enforcement, information technology, health, psychosocial support, laws and ordinances, and management of the dead; while the vaccine cluster or operations center B is composed of procurement/cargo and logistics, information technology, communications, immunization program, social mobilization, and community engagement; and the recovery cluster, or operations center C, is led by the Davao City Investment Operation Center (DCIPC) and will have economic recovery, social recovery, and food security under it.
The mayor, in one of her past Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR) programs, bared that she appointed retired City Health Office (CHO) chief Dr. Joy Villafuerte as head of the special team of the vaccination cluster of the task force. CIO, Michael Manguhig RPN Dxkt Davao
