DOH: Gov’t to hire more vaccinators

The Department of Health said the government would hire more vaccinators as the country continues its COVID-19 mass inoculation program. The P368 million fund would be coming from Bayanihan To Recover As One Law (Bayanihan 2).

“We have Bayanihan 2 funds valid until June 2021 and this is P368 million which we have given to our regional offices to hire COVID-19 vaccinators and this is up to June 31, 2021, but we are requesting the extension of Bayanihan 2,” Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said in a joint hearing of the House Committees on Health and Trade and Industry.

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The Philippines has already 3,000 vaccinators so far, according to Cabotaje. He added they are recommending to include the same provision in the proposed Bayanihan 3 Law.

Under the Bayanihan 2 Law, P165.5 billion funds were allocated for the government’s COVID-19 response.

Aside from deploying more vaccinators, the government is also mobilizing medical health workers for the military and other government agencies.

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DOH: Gov’t to hire more vaccinators

The government is also working with the private sector to repurpose private businesses’ health workers for the vaccination of more Filipinos especially those in the workforce.

“They (private businesses) are also repurposing some of the health workers that they are not actively using so that they will not deprive the hospitals from health workers, ‘yung mga nasa clinics lang nila, nasa pharmacies. So we are complementing our efforts,” she said.

The government and private hospitals are also studying the possibility of utilizing the medical schools for nurses and doctors to augment the number of vaccinators in the country, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said.

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“We are preparing for this and we have six weeks to prepare so that in June, we can start massive inoculation. The private sector procurement will arrive in June,” Galvez said.

According to the government, after vaccinating health workers, senior citizens, and people with illnesses or comorbidities against -19, those in the  will follow.

“Next is economic sectors that are needed to ensure security, consumer and worker safety, and those working in priority government projects, in particular, itong ating COVID response,” explained National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary  Edillon.