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| Health Secretary Francisco Duque III talks during the press conference at the Department of Health in Manila, February 03, 2020. (File photo: AFP via Andalou Agency/Dante Diosina Jr) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana] Philippines' Department of Health hired a total of 8,056 health workers under its emergency hiring program to increase medical frontliners battling the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
"This figure as of September 12 composes 75.34 percent of the 10,693 openings for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers under the program that started in mid-April," said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
“We are still appealing to those with medical training to join in the effort. Let’s save people. Someone’s mom or dad, son or daughter, spouse, or sibling needs critical care,”Duque said in a statement Tuesday.“We would like to express our gratitude to the brave health workers who heeded the call to serve and protect our patients, and we appeal for more medical frontliners to join us in fighting COVID-19,” the Health Chief added.
According to Duque, some 43 percent of those hired were deployed to public hospitals under the DOH, 17 percent were sent to laboratories or COVID-19 diagnostic facilities, and 15 percent were deployed to isolation and quarantine sites or temporary treatment and monitoring facilities.
Meanwhile, 12 percent were sent to local government units and other hospitals, and seven percent were deployed to COVID-19 referral facilities. Hired healthy workers are mostly nurses with numbers around 2,701 followed by medical technologists at 1,356.
