Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar has asked the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Health (DOH) to extend the service contracts for the whole year of their health workers here.
Salazar said Friday that she requested to extend the service contracts of the health workers for at least one year to prevent salary delays as what had happened last year.
The health workers the DILG and DOH have employed through a contract of service included coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) contact tracers, vaccinators, nurses, and physicians.
Salazar said that with the surge of Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant in Metro Manila, the same is expected in this city.
“Therefore, we have to prepare for it by having a one-year contract of service for our front-liners,” the mayor said in a statement.
“We cannot just prepare for three months, it being the current contract service of front-liners,” she added.
Salazar said the Omicron threat is foreseen for the entire year, so there is also a need to extend the front-liners contracts during the period.
She noted that the city government has had bad experiences in the past when the city council slashed the budget for Largo Vida (Long Life) and other healthcare programs that prompted the city to stop the initiatives s due to budgetary constraints.
“We don’t what that to happen again this year. That is why this early we are asking DILG and DOH to extend the contracts of our vaccinators, nurses, and doctors for the entire year for continuous service in the fight against the Omicron-driven virus,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Zamboanga Task Force Covid-19 data tracker showed that this city has registered a Covid-19 recovery rate of 94.69 percent as of January 5.
The same data tracker indicated that this city has recorded a cumulative 22,635 confirmed cases with 21,435 recoveries, 92 active cases, and 1,108 deaths.
Source: Philippines News Agency
