CEBU CITY – As the new epicenter of the pandemic in the country, the Cebu City government’s health system has been stretched to the limit that national government has to come in. In the last week of June, President Rodrigo R. Duterte appointed and sent Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu as deputy chief implementer for Visayas of the National Task Force Against Covid-19 to augment the government’s response in Central Visayas, particularly Cebu City.
Reciprocating the national government’s move, the city government has allocated a budget amounting to Php 60 million for additional cash incentive for nurses assigned in private hospitals.
In a published report, Assistant Secretary Joni Gonzales of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) said on Friday that Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella has “committed to giving health workers, especially nurses an incentive.”
This commitment of the city government stems from the call of healthcare workers in the province as more nurses plead for assistance due to lack of human resources and other benefits.
Gonzales further said the city will provide cash incentives to nurses who are assigned to various private hospitals to take care of Covid-19 patients and to attend to other Covid-related health protocols and procedures.
“They had allocated a budget of around Php 60 million for three months. This will cover around 2,000 nurses over eight hospitals in Cebu,” Gonzales added during a Department of Health regular briefing. Each health worker may receive up to Php 10,000 as soon as the funds become available.
The Cebu City Health Department had recorded 107 new Covid-19 cases, 174 new laboratory-negative and 11 new fatalities on July 1, 2020, the first day of the implementation of extended enhanced community quarantine in the entire city.
