Over 500 Students, Educators, Education Workers, Infected With Coronavirus In Cordillera
CORDILLERA COVID-19 OUTBREAK – The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) raised the alarm as over 500 students, educators, and education workers, were found positive for coronavirus.
According to ACT Secretary-General Raymond Basilio, there were 547 cases of teachers, personnel, and even students, infected with the deadly new disease. Furthermore, of that number 245 were educators, 52 were non-teaching personnel, while the remaining 250 were students.
Additionally, ACT reported that there was a spike in the number of teachers required to undergo isolation after being exposed to parents who were found positive for COVID-19 after delivering modules.
Along with this, Basilio revealed that the government had not given infected educators financial aid. During an interview with ABS-CBN, Basilio stated:
Malaking bahagi ng gastusin sa pagkakasakit sa COVID-19 ay hindi shouldered ng PhilHealth. Kaya sa aming cases na na-monitor, talagang nagshe-shell out ng pera ‘yong teachers, naglo-loan upang pambayad sa kanilang hospital bills
As a response, Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla explained that the Education Department could not cover the treatment as it was not included in the 2020 budget. Moreover, Sevilla noted that teachers and personnel may avail benefit packages from PhilHealth.
However, PhilHealth had recently been tagged in corruption allegations, mostly linked to kickbacks from “COVID-19 benefit payouts”.
Currently, the Philippines has reported a total of 346,536 coronavirus cases. Of that number, 46,227 were tagged as active cases. Meanwhile, the country is still on the top 20 list of most number of coronavirus cases worldwide.
Last August, the Education Department reported a total of 823 confirmed coronavirus cases among educators, faculty, and students.
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