PBBM pushes establishment of virology institute, disease control center

Spread the love

MANILA — President Marcos on Thursday pushed for the passage of legislation creating a virology institute and a disease control center to better consolidate research, knowledge sources, and new data related to the pandemic, even as he urged health researchers to continue exchanging information due to the evolving nature of Covid-19.

“We have been in consultation with the House of Representatives and the Senate to bring these — to create these agencies so that we can bring them to bear in what we are up to now continuing to have to fight,” the President said during the celebration of the 15th Philippine national health research system week in Pampanga.

“We will continue to work so that our people are safer, so that our citizens have better access to health care and so that… the quality of our health care will improve,” he added.

Marcos’ 19 priority bills include measures to establish the Virology Institute of the Philippines and a disease control center.

Given that the virus is mutating, Marcos, who has been infected with Covid-19 twice, emphasized the importance of maintaining an open mind and a steady flow of information among agencies.

“All of these things just — have kept coming at us. It has gotten to the point where I always — I’m hesitant to say we are at the tail end of the pandemic. Every time I say that, there’s a new surge,” Marcos said.

“The first meeting that Usec. (Rosario) Vergeire and I had, I said, ‘It seems that it is now over. It seems that we are at the tail end of the pandemic.’ And here we come again with a new variant of coronavirus… of Omicron that now we have to deal with, that you have to genome sequence again, that we have to find a booster so that the people are fully immunized,” he added, referring to the Department of Health officer-in-charge who also attended the event in Pampanga.

House committees to hold hearings during break

Spread the love

Spread the loveMANILA – The House of Representatives has authorized for its committees to conduct hearings during the five-week congressional break, extending until late April.

LATEST NEWS

TRENDING NEWS