Release of health workers’ COVID-19 allowances continues

MANILA, Philippines — Healthcare workers will continue to receive allowances even after the expiration of the state of calamity over COVID-19 in the country, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday.

Marcos did not extend the state of calamity declaration because, according to him, the country is “not in a state of calamity anymore, technically speaking.”

The declaration, which allows the continued implementation of measures to combat the ongoing pandemic, expired on December 31, 2022.

“We have carefully studied the provision of their allowance. Even if the state of calamity is not extended, the payment of the benefits to our health workers will not be affected,” Marcos was quoted as saying after a meeting with health officials.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of calamity across the country in March 2020 when the virus that causes COVID-19 started to spread. Duterte extended the declaration twice.

Marcos extended the COVID-19 state of calamity from September until the end of 2022.

The World Health Organization on Monday said that COVID-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern three years after the United Nations agency raised its highest form of alert.

In a briefing on Tuesday, Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the recent case trends could not be considered “no longer [in] an emergency [status].” But she stressed there was no need for tighter measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

“We will be guided by the WHO, but here, we can see that our cases are already manageable. Our citizens have adopted the good behavior of wearing masks,” she said. — Gaea Katreena Cabico, Philstar.com (FREEMAN)