The government plans to hire 10,000 healthcare workers to ensure that doctors and nurses are rested, motivated and rejuvenated to face the long-drawn battle against the pandemic, the head of the National Task Force (NTF) Covid-19 said.
In a statement, NTF Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. assured government and private sector healthcare frontliners that they would get benefits and support.
The government will also continue to scale up the country’s health care system by putting up more ICU and isolation beds, testing laboratories, referral hospitals, swabbing centers and quarantine facilities throughout the country, he said.
Galvez urged Filipinos to support the National Action Plan (NAP) Against Covid-19, the government’s comprehensive plan that aims to curb the spread of the virus in the country.
“We have a very good plan to fight this pandemic. […] We, therefore, call on everyone to support it. This will ensure our health, safety and future, as we recover and heal as one nation,” Galvez said on Friday.
The government has implemented the second phase of the NAP (NAP 2), which is focused on ensuring public health while gradually opening up the country’s economy.
Using the “Hammer and Dance Theory” for NAP 2, the government will continue to contain the virus’s spread through zoning containment strategy or targeted lockdowns while slowly reopening the economy, Galvez said.
The NAP 2 aims to sustain what was achieved in the initial phase, by continuing to scale up the country’s health system capacity, lower the fatality rate of Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 cases, and prepare people in transitioning to the “new normal,” he said. Isabel S. Macaraeg