SEN. Juan Edgardo Angara alerted the Duterte administration against complacency amid a dip in deadly Covid cases.
This, even as Angara, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, guaranteed that senators support the administration’s funding requirements to bankroll ongoing efforts to effectively contain the Covid pandemic by scrutinizing the Palace proposed 2022 national budget amounting to over P50 trillion.
Even as the number of positive Covid cases dipped recently, Angara advised concerned government agencies and health officials, as well as the public, not to be complacent.
Angara reminded that Covid-19 victims are still being admitted to hospitals, noting some never get out alive due to the coronavirus.
The senator observed that even the delivery of 100 million doses of the anti-Covid vaccines are deemed to be not enough to check the contagion.
He cited a report of the National Task Force Against Covid as of October that pegged the number of Filipinos at 25 million fully-vaccinated against Covid-19.
Still, Angara asserted this is only 33.65 percent of the 70 percent of the population government is targeting to vaccinate before the yearend. Because of that, the senator stressed to the DOH and affected local government units to be “more creative and flexible” in distributing the vaccine supplies.
At the same time, Angara endorsed the appeal of vaccine czar Carlito Galvez to local governments to conduct house-to-house vaccine service, particularly for senior citizens, as well as persons with disability (PWDs) and others that should be vaccinated.
Angara also reiterated his reminder to local government units to continue advising residents in their areas on the “importance of minimum safety protocol” in wearing face mask and maintaining “social distancing” even if already vaccinated.
As chairman of the Committee on Finance, the senator guaranteed that the Senate is supporting funding requirements of the ongoing government efforts to effectively contain the Covid pandemic by scrutinizing the Palace-proposed 2022 national budget amounting to over P5 trillion.