MANILA -- The Department of Health (DOH) under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has stepped up efforts to reduce the vulnerability of Filipinos to COVID-19 while implementing programs to bolster the healthcare workforce.

In its accomplishment report covering July to December, the DOH said an additional 3,100,258 individuals have been vaccinated against COVID-19, bringing the official tally of fully jabbed Filipinos to 73,713,573.

Some 6,068,268 Filipinos received their first booster, raising the tally to 21,047,212, while 2,843,537 got their second booster shots, pushing the total to 3,691,412, according to the DOH.

For the healthcare workforce, the DOH reported the provision of the One COVID Allowance/ Health Emergency Allowance to 1,624,045 healthcare workers, special risk allowance to 73,711 workers and disbursed some P19.65 billion for healthcare workers’ benefits, such as active hazard pay.

The health department also reported 1,430,286 additional patients served in 2022, with additional assistance amounting to P16.6 billion.

The DOH has further provided a total of P11.24 billion in medical assistance to 1,878,650 patients through the Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients (MAIP) Program as of November 2022.

The DOH distributed P468.59 million as assistance to all regions for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in Health (DRRM-H) activities and built additional 40 functional specialty centers, bringing to 46 the total number of specialty facilities nationwide.

The DOH also pointed to the ongoing organizational development activities for rightsizing, the decoupling of the Alert Level System from restrictions, and the institutionalization of the e-Arrival system as significant policies aimed at ensuring sound macroeconomic fundamentals.

The health department reported that 100 percent of the Universal Health Care integration sites achieved at least 70 percent of the local health systems maturity preparatory level key result areas as of the second quarter of 2022.

The DOH has also established Malasakit Program Office (MPO) units in 17 centers for health development and launched new benefits under the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), including outpatient drug benefits and adjusted All Case Rates (ACR). It also established an additional 4 Malasakit Centers nationwide totaling 153 Malasakit Centers, as of December 2022.

The DOH also issued “healthy public policies,” including the national policy on the prevention and control of the use of tobacco products and other similar products; guidelines for ethical and responsible reporting and portrayal of suicide in the media; and guidelines on healthy settings framework in learning institutions.

The introduction of the eArrival card also fulfills part of the Marcos administration's plan to ease the country's stringent entry protocols in order to attract more tourists, said the DOH.

The eArrival card removes unnecessary information fields, allowing the easier and faster completion of the traveler registration process.

Moreover, the health department also noted some 80,907 enrollees of the DOH e-learning modules, and an additional 653 pre-service and in-service scholars, bringing the total to 2,230.

To bolster the healthcare workforce, the DOH has launched international scholarship programs for 50 public health professionals and led the development of a scholarship program with the Philippine-American Educational Foundation (PAEF) to facilitate the grant of scholarships and research programs and exchanges under the DOH's capacity-building and research initiatives, as provided in the Universal Health Care Law.

The DOH said these are all part of efforts to create quality jobs, encourage research and development, as well as enhance the digital economy. (PND)