PRESIDENT Duterte yesterday said government will look for funds to hire more doctors and other medical frontliners to help in the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The President made the statement during his “Talk to the People” address after National Task Force against COVID-19 chief and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. reported that hospitals are struggling because of a shortage in manpower.
He said representatives of groups of doctors and other health workers told him their members are exhausted and stressed out, or are either sick or have resigned.
Duterte said, “We will try to look for the money to have more recruits joining this fight against COVID,” he said, adding that the salary in government hospitals is already “good” and could lure more people to apply.
On COVID medicines, Galvez said officials of Roche, manufacturer of Tocilizumab, have told him they could no longer accommodate additional orders. He said the allocation for the Philippines had already been doubled to 10 million about two months ago.
The Department of Health said Roche Philippines has informed the government that it expects Tocilizumab supply to remain tight until the end of the year.
Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the country has administered 40.030 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines nationwide, with about 17.676 million individuals fully vaccinated as of September 15,
The vaccines are given in two doses, except that made by Johnson & Johnson which is a two-dose jab.
In Metro Manila, epicenter of COVID cases in the country, about 63.26 percent of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated.
The government aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people before the year ends and around 90 million in the first quarter of 2022.
Galvez said the country has received 57.54 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of September 14, excluding 753,480 doses of Pfizer vaccines that arrived Wednesday night.
Of the 54.5 million, 13 million came from the COVAX Facility, and 3.6 million were donated by other countries.
Galvez said the country is also expecting 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccines to be delivered under the World Health Organization- led COVAX facility before the end of the month. This is part of the donation of the US which initially promised 6 million doses.
