- Cash and food packs for kids
- Shops opening
Good news for children under two years old and women lacking proper nutrition.
Malacanang said the task force leading the country’s pandemic response had approved the release of cash and food packs under the “dietary supplementation program” which will cover children aged 6 to 23 months and “nutritionally at-risk” pregnant women.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told the Laging Handa press briefing “This will be distributed in the form of cash or food packs…This forms part of improving the health care of the citizens and a means to eliminating hunger which has been aggravated by the pandemic.”
According to the September survey of the Social Weather Stations, a record-high 30.7 percent of Filipino families or an estimated 7.6 million households experienced involuntary hunger due to lack of food at least once in the past three months.
Business establishments
The Department of Trade and Industry on Friday said several businesses under general community quarantine (GCQ) were now allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity while barbershops and salons could operate at up to 75 percent.
“The business establishments or activities in Section 1 in areas placed under GCQ shall be allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity (while still allowing work-from-home arrangements, where practicable), except for barbershops and salons which shall be allowed to operate at a maximum of 75 percent operational capacity, subject to strict physical distancing,” the DTI said.
Restaurants and food establishments under GCQ are also allowed to operate beyond 50 percent capacity subject to physical distancing, the DTI memo circular said. Menu offering and maximum serving of alcoholic beverages are subject to local government guidelines, it added.
The DTI said restaurants and fast food establishments’ dine-in, take-out, and delivery services were allowed to operate 24/7.
Clinical trials
The Department of Health on Friday defended the P89-million government funding for the conduct of clinical trials for possible COVID-19 vaccines, saying this would be used to shoulder operational costs.
During a virtual briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the funding allocated for the World Health Organization’s clinical trials was just a small fraction to help in the search for an effective vaccine.
The amount is under the Department of Science and Technology’s proposed 2021 budget.
The budget underwent scrutiny at the House of Representatives earlier this week.
“It is our obligation to contribute and to become part of the solution to this extraordinary global crisis,” Vergeire said in Filipino.
Nurses for abroad
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration on Friday reported it was processing the applications of some 500 nurses for deployment abroad.
“Since the approval of the expanded exemption in the Inter-Agency Task Force resolution on temporary suspension, we are currently processing for deployment of not more than 500 nurses,” POEA administrator Bernard Olalia said during a Laging Handa briefing. Willie Casas
This came as President Rodrigo Duterte approved the proposal to expand exemptions from the deployment ban for health workers who have overseas contracts and complete travel documents as of August 31.
At the same time, the POEA chief added that some countries employing overseas Filipino workers were slowly easing their respective travel restrictions and lockdowns.
Job opportunities
Olalia reported that job opportunities would be available to Filipinos in the Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Canada, among others.
“Slowly some destination labor countries are opening for example the Middle East. Earlier, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia announced that they are ready to accept foreign workers, particularly our beloved OFWs. The in-demand jobs are for skilled workers,” Olalia said. “In Asia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Brunei have also opened, in demand are our skilled workers and they are also hiring household service workers.”
He added that Canada and the United Kingdom were slowly accepting foreign workers, the in-demand workers were health care workers such as nurses.