BY LEANDER C. DOMINGO
BAMBANG, Nueva Vizcaya (April 26)—More than 1,000 health workers will be deployed to the different health facilities within the region as the government intensifies to direct the public and private coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) facilities, according to the Cagayan Valley Center for Health Development (CVCHD) of the Department of Health (DoH).
Dr. Rio Magpantay, DoH Region 2 director, said the augmentation of health workers to be deployed is to increase the capacity of the CVCHD and to act on the need to empower disease surveillance.
Magpantay said essential positions like doctors, nurses, medical technologists, radiologic technologists, nursing attendants, public health associates, health program officers, encoders and drivers will be needed to be filled to address the pressing needs in fighting the dreaded disease.
The CVCHD said it has already deployed 862 workers in hospitals, community isolation units, rural health units, and provincial health offices in the different provinces in Region 2 (Cagayan Valley).
The Cagayan Valley region comprises the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and the island province of Batanes.
On April 25, the DoH Region 2 reported a total of 5,484 Covid-19 active cases in Region 2 with 23,887 recoveries and 517 deaths.
Magpantay said around 65 positions are already for deployment but the region still needs more than 200 positions to be filled up.
“[We recognize] that human resources are the most important assets of an organization. Since we are currently fighting the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic, the health sector must be unified and strengthened in numbers,” the CVCHD said.