The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) on Wednesday urged the government to allot a bigger COVID-19 response budget for 2022 to ramp up free health services, particularly free mass testing to curb the spread of the virus in the country.advertisement
In a statement, FNU sounded the alarm over the “unabated” rise in the number of COVID-19 cases among health workers recently.
The group said the proposed Department of Health 2022 budget for the COVID-19 response is less than 1% of the proposed P5.024 trillion national budget next year.
“Unless the government seriously fulfills its primary obligation to undertake basic public infection control measures, the COVID-19 will continue to wreak havoc on people’s lives including and most especially on nurses and other health care workers in the forefront of the pandemic response,” it said.
