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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Bong Go: More budget for health spending needed to fully overcome COVID-19

Bong Go: More budget for health spending needed to fully overcome COVID-19

Published Jan 9, 2022 10:47 am

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go on Sunday reiterated the importance of ensuring the country’s healthcare system is fully funded in order to fully overcome the challenges of COVID-19 amid emerging threats of the ongoing pandemic.

Go, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, said this is why he consistently supported efforts to increase the Department of Health’s (DOH) budget during the budget deliberations in the Senate.

"Now, more than ever, we need to focus our spending on health. As Chair of the Committee on Health, I will ensure that we have sufficient funds to improve our COVID-19 response and assist our recovery efforts,” Go said.

“We need to strengthen our healthcare system by appropriating the necessary funds for this, for establishing new hospitals and increasing the bed capacity of our existing hospitals,” he pointed out.

“Overcoming COVID-19 must be towards being more prepared for future pandemics and other health crises,” he emphasized.

Go said it is very important to learn the lesson from COVID-19, saying the country can only overcome the pandemic and help save lives if more funds are allocated that would help the country prepare for future contagion.

“It’s important for us to learn from COVID-19. Not only to surpass this problem to help save lives but also to prepare the nation should something like this happen again in the future,” he pointed out.

Likewise, Go renewed his appeal for the people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, reiterating that data shows that vaccnes work by preventing severe symptoms and death.

“To those who are not yet vaccinated but are qualified, I appeal to you is to grab this opportunity. Please get vaccinated because it would be more dangerous if you remain unvaccinated. That is the truth. This is already free,” he appealed.

“Most of those who died and contracted the disease is because they were not vaccinated, and that’s based on the data of the DOH,” he pointed out.

As of January 6, the government has administered nearly 111.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

Some 51.6 million individuals are fully vaccinated while 57.4 million have received their first dose. In addition, 2.8 million have obtained their booster shots.

Related Tags

Bong Go National Budget covid-19 doh Healthcare workers
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