An infectious disease expert on Sunday called for COVID-19 booster shots for health care workers, saying the vaccines they were given at the start of the pandemic could become less effective over time.
Dr. Rontgene Solante, a member of the Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP), said this can be seen on the ground, with health workers catching COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated.
Although most of these cases were mild, Solante said losing these health workers for 14 quarantine days would hurt the fight against COVID-19.
He said the VEP has already submitted its recommendation to the All Experts Group of the Department of Health (DOH).
He added that the VEP was considering recommending that those inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine be prioritized for booster shots.
Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation will resume providing free rides for medical front liners, essential workers, and authorized persons outside of residence (APORs) on Monday, Sept. 13.
The department said the free rides will be expanded to areas outside Metro Manila under the second phase of its service contracting program, which pays public utility vehicle operators and drivers based on the number of trips they make per week, regardless of the number of passengers.
Also, Senator Christopher Go welcomed the release of P1.98 billion to enable the government to hire 20,839 more health workers to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Go also expressed support for a proposal to introduce a fixed monthly Special Risk Allowance (SRA) for both public and private health care workers who physically report for duty in hospitals and other health facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Go urged the concerned authorities to provide a certain level of flexibility in the implementation of the provisions of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which provides the legal basis for the provision of SRA.
At present, only health care workers who are directly catering to or in contact with COVID-19 patients receive an SRA not exceeding P5,000 per month.
The allowance is pro-rated based on the number of days that they physically reported for work and is not available to health workers in the same hospital who do not deal with COVID-19 patients.
In the House, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray Villafuerte called for a long-term solution to guarantee extra remuneration for medical front-liners.
He said Congress needs to pass new legislation providing health care workers with hazard pay, plus substantial increases in the current rates of their overtime pay and other compensation.
He said the congressional approval of two pending measures, which he authored, would prevent a repeat of the unrest among medical personnel resulting from the delay in the release of their hazard pay and other pandemic-related benefits.
“The growing unrest is alarming, especially given the problems plaguing the country’s health-care infrastructure and the looming shortage of medical front-liners. We need to write these bills into laws soon enough so that the release of such benefits for health care workers will be mandatory without any need for a presidential directive,” Villafuerte said.
House Bill No. 7490 provides hazard pay to all health-care front liners equivalent to at least 30 percent of their respective basic salaries for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
His other measure, HB 9670, seeks to amend the existing Magna Carta of Public Health Workers by increasing the rates for their overtime pay and other incentives and benefits.
In other developments, Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday said there was no cause for presidential spokesman Harry Roque to bully doctors during a meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).
“It’s okay to disagree. But you have no right to bully or disrespect them,” Robredo said in Filipino. “If you’re talking to people who have a different point of view, you have no right to react the way Secretary Roque did.”
In a leaked video of the online meeting, Roque was seen berating, jabbing his finger, and shouting at two doctors who cautioned against relaxing quarantine restrictions.