MORE HEALTH WORKERS IN VISAYAS DEPLOYED IN NCR

SEN. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go lauded the second batch of medical frontliners from the Visayas who volunteered to work in hospitals and health care facilities in the National Capital Region (NCR).

They heeded the senator’s appeal to volunteer in Metro Manila amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the region. “Maraming salamat sa inyong patuloy na pagmamalasakit sa ating kapwa Pilipino (Thank you for your continued expression of concern to our fellow Filipinos),”

Go said in a video message.

A ceremonial send-off was held in Cebu City on April 16 for 30 nurses from Central Visayas. Twenty of them were assigned to the National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City

while the rest will be deployed to the Las Piñas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center.

On April 8, the first batch of volunteers composed of 50 medical frontliners, including 11 doctors, 35 nurses and four medical technologists from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City and Department of Health-Central Visayas were sent off to the NCR.

Go earlier appealed to health workers in non-critical areas to help their colleagues in critical areas.

He launched an initiative to mobilize medical frontliners in collaboration with the Office of the Presidential Assistant to the Visayas, Department of Health (DoH), local government units, hospitals with Malasakit Centers and Project Balik Buhay memberprivate hospitals.

Each volunteer will be given an additional 20 percent premium on their basic salary for emergency hiring and a separate incentive from the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas.

A volunteer from Central Visayas will also receive allowance from the provincial government of Cebu and the Cebu City government.

Their Covid-19 testing and transportation expenses to NCR will be shouldered by the DoH. The receiving hospitals will provide food and accommodation to the volunteers.

“In these trying times, a wholeof-nation approach is needed to overcome this pandemic. I am sure that, with everybody’s cooperation and support, we will be triumphant,” Go said.

“Each of us has a role to play in the fight against Covid-19,” said the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health in Filipino. “This is not the fight of the go vernment alone but the fight of the entire Filipino nation and the whole world.”

“I’m happy to see the spirit of bayanihan (communal spirit) is still alive despite the successive challenges that hit the country,” he added.