Health workers’ pleas will be addressed
President Rodrigo Duterte listens to the pleas of health care workers and will address
all their concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles has assured.
In an media forum held Wednesday, Nograles said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), will discuss this urgent matter to give concrete solutions to problems facing health care workers, even as they continue to provide medical assistance to persons infected with the virus.
Nograles, who is also the IATF co-chair, said the IATF will formulate policies to be implemented by the National Task Force (NTF) and the chief implementer.
The Department of Health (DoH), he said, is recruiting additional nurses and health workers in the fight against the scourge.
Around 9,365 positions, according to Nograles, need to be filled up for immediate deployment, to supplement the current number of 6,510 that are actively working in various health institutions.
The Department of the
Interior and Local Government (DILG), meantime, is focusing efforts on hiring contract tracers, supplementing the 73,000 tracers who have already made 200,000 searches of those who have come into contact with COVID-19 patients.
Nograles expressed confidence that the number of Filipinos tested for COVID-19 in various parts of the country will steadily increase because of this.
He said at present, 1.536 million tests have already been conducted and the government is hitting its target of 30,000 tests per day.
During the forum, Nograles strongly encouraged people under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) areas — NCR, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal — to abide by the prescribed health protocols.
“Let’s continue supporting the government. We need to be united in this fight,” he said.
“Government is pouring massive resources to combat COVID-19 because every life is previous and we all want this pandemic to end,” he added.