Solon seeks P1-B supplemental budget for DOH's nCoV efforts

House Committee on Health chair Angelina Tan would file a measure that would provide a P1 billion supplemental budget for the Department of Health's (DOH's) efforts against the spread of the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD).

"It is about time that Congress approved a supplemental budget to fight the spread of nCoV in the country and to protect the Filipinos from this deadly virus," Tan said in a press conference on Monday.

According to Tan, she pegged the amount for the proposed supplemental budget needed by the DOH at P894 million.

The DOH, she said, would use the funding to beef up the budget requirements for the department's frontline offices that were addressing the disease.

These offices included the Disease and Prevention Control Bureau for logistics and commodities; the Epidemiology Bureau for surveillance; the Health Facility Development Bureau for health facility preparedness; the Health Emergency Management Bureau for quick response; the Bureau of Quarantine; the Health Promotion and Communications Service; and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

Tan also saw the need to strengthen the RITM as it only had 50 beds for patients with infectious diseases requiring tertiary care 7.

Proactive

The representative also intended to file a separate resolution to look into the country's preparedness for health emergencies.

She cited the report of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, an independent body assessing a country's readiness for a worldwide emergency, which stated that the world needed to "proactively establish systems needed to detect and control potential disease outbreaks such as adequate investment, building stronger systems, and strengthening coordination mechanisms."

"We need to be proactive. If we waited until the first case of nCoV has been confirmed before we acted, it could have been too late a hero for us. The good thing is that the DOH has been proactive and I am positive that it is on top of the situation," Tan said.

"The House Committee on Health is closely monitoring the actions of the DOH in their response to this health emergency," she added.

As of Monday, there were two confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV in the country, the DOH said. A total of 80 patients had been tagged as persons under investigation for the disease in the country, 67 of whom were currently admitted in hospitals while 10 had been discharged. — DVM, GMA New