News Roundup 21 June 2022
Jun 21, 2022 • 5 min Read
Metro Manila’s COVID cases rise to 255, positivity rate at 4.4% — DOH | INQUIRER.NET – The COVID-19 average daily cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) climbed to over 200, while the positivity rate ballooned to 4.4 percent, the Department of Health (DOH) reported. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire noted that NCR’s average daily COVID-19 infections swelled from around 100 to 255. “Here in the National Capital Region, it’s already significant. Kaninang umaga po nag-interview ako, ang nire-report ko nga lang po is (This morning, I had an interview and I only reported) about 130 average daily cases in the National Capital Region,” Vergeire said on One News’ The Chiefs on Monday evening. “When we received the reports this afternoon, nung nag-analyze po tayo, nakita natin na ngayon, 255 na po ang average daily cases sa NCR,” she reported. (When we received the reports this afternoon when we analyzed them; we saw that the average daily cases in NCR reached 255.) The positivity rate, meanwhile, is already close to breaching the World Health Organization’s benchmark of five percent. “Kaninang umaga, ang positivity rate nung nagre-report ako is just 2.9 percent. Now, it’s 4.4 percent,” Vergeire said. (This morning, the positivity rate I reported was just 2.9 percent. Now, it’s 4.4 percent.) According to Vergeire, almost all island groups in the country have an increase in COVID-19 cases. However, only NCR’s rise is significant.
PH peso continues to weaken, now at 54.265:$1 | INQUIRER.NET – A day after breaking the 54-to-dollar mark, the Philippine peso saw yet another loss on Tuesday, closing at 54.265, based on the Bank Association of the Philippines’ (BAP) foreign exchange summary. This puts the local currency at its weakest in almost four years (three years and eight months, to be exact) since Oct. 15, 2018. This record-breaking high also came in the same month the Philippine peso broke the 53:$1 mark on June 10. If it continues to weaken, the Philippine peso is set to breach the next resistance level, P54.325, which was last posted on September 26, 2018. The Philippine peso’s weak currency could make imports more expensive for the country — gas prices and major food items like bread will continue to increase, especially as the country continues to grapple with the rising costs of oil amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In an April 28 report, London-based think tank Capital Economics warned that expensive imports, like oil, would weaken the peso this year and add to the Philippines’ slow transition to economic recovery. It predicted the Philippine peso to become one of the worst-performing Asian currencies from 2022 to 2024; depreciating to 54:$1 in 2022 and further weakening to 55 against by 2023 and 2024. The Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), meanwhile, told INQUIRER.net that the strength of the Philippine peso, or its weakening, in the global exchange rate or compared to the greenback will soon be discussed during the Monetary Policy Stance press briefing on Thursday.
No shortage of nurses but low pay, lack of tenure driving them abroad | PHILSTAR.COM – While it is not new for nurses in the Philipines opting to go abroad in search of better opportunities, this time, the wave of resignations comes just as the country is anticipating another surge in COVID-19 infections. Amid regular work and experiencing burnout from their shifts due to the pandemic, some nurses are taking advantage of the reopening of economies abroad and the laxing of border restrictions to look for employment overseas. “[It’s] because of the lack of opportunities in our country,” Dr. Anthony Leachon, former adviser to the country’s pandemic task force, told Philstar.com over the phone earlier this month. “They are overworked, they’re overburdened but less appreciated and of course, they seem undervalued. And there’s a discrepancy between the payments of private hospitals and the public hospitals,” Leachon added in a mix of English and Filipino. He earlier sounded alarm that nurses in private hospitals are “resigning in droves.” He said nurses from private hospitals would transfer and work for government hospitals instead or they end up in other industries before taking up mandatory exams for the country they will be migrating to. Nurses in private hospitals are paid the minimum wage or around P537 daily in Metro Manila or more or less about P12,000 monthly, but those in the provinces get paid even less. According to an ABS-CBN report, St. Luke’s Medical Center is promising more benefits such as a P10,000 signing bonus, free groceries, and accommodation, among other things in a bid to entice nurses to apply to their clinics. But groups say that not all private hospitals can afford to issue benefits like these. “Only the premier hospitals can provide these packages and bonuses, but our concern are those private hospitals that may not have the operational income,” Philippine Nurses Association Melvin Miranda told Philstar.com in a separate phone call. “They are the ones who will really need assistance when it comes to this perspective because they are the ones that have been identified with problems related to the shortage of the nursing workers.” The pay in private hospitals is not enough that some nurses would opt to work for higher education institutions instead. “We are also experiencing a shortage of clinical instructors in nursing education,” Miranda said. Meanwhile, nurses working for public hospitals are at Salary Grade 15, about P35,097 monthly. Filipino Nurses United’s (FNU) national president Maristela Presto-Abenojar said the implementation of this also varies. “Not all nurses in the government sector are receiving this salary because we do know that our health system also is devolved since 1991,” she told Philstar.com in a video call. In some provinces, nurses in government hospitals are only given 65% of what they are supposed to earn.
