BAGUIO CITY – Local legislators want concerned offices of the city government to submit to the body updated reports on the implementation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) programs, projects and activities for them to be guided on future actions on said matters.
Under Resolution No. 027, series of 2022, the council requested the City Health Services Office (CHSO) to submit to the body every 2 weeks, current status report in relation to the programs, projects, activities and implementation of the COVID-19 operations of the city government, to include the number of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, number of deaths due to the deadly virus, among others.
On the other hand, Resolution No. 028, series of 2022, the council also requested the city’s Local Finance Committee (LFC) to submit to the body on a regular basis, updated report in relation to the utilization of COVID-19 operation fund of the local government.
The body claimed that the pertinent updated report on the utilization of COVID-19 funds will guide and be the basis for legislative measures that will ensure the proper utilization of the funds.
Earlier, the council passed various supplemental budgets for the continuing COVID-19 operations in the city to ensure the situation was under control that prevented the health care facilities from being overwhelmed and the frontliners from being stressed even during the recent surge in cases triggered by the different variants that mutated from the virus over the past 2 years.
Among the programs, projects and activities where the city government heavily invested to contain the rapid spread of the deadly virus in the city include the procurement of some 380,000 dose of vaccines from a pharmaceutical company, the operation and maintenance of temporary treatment and monitoring facilities, hiring of contact tracers, health workers and vaccinators to augment the current staff of the health office and the isolation centers as well as the city’s central triage unit based at the Baguio Convention Center and the food for health workers and volunteers.
City Budget Officer lawyer Leticia Clemente disclosed that the local government used up more or less P300 million for the city’s overall anti-COVID-19 response over the past 2 years putting in place the appropriate units of equipment and available supplies for the use of health workers and patients once needed.
For this year, she reported that the local government earmarked some 95 million from the city’s 2022 annual budget to help sustain the city’s anti-COVID-10 response for this next period.
