TUCP urges DOH to provide workers with free face masks
by Leslie Ann AquinoThe Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has urged the Department of Health (DOH) to provide workers with free standardized face masks.
TUCP President Raymond Mendoza issued the call as the country recorded its first case of the 2019 novel coronavirus (nCoV).
“We are calling on the DOH to provide free face masks especially to poor citizens working and residing in locations identified by government surveillance team where the patient confirmed to have corona virus traveled,” he said in a statement.
Mendoza added that not all citizens can afford to buy a steady supply of standard face masks.
“And so we call on government to allow the poor access to life-saving face masks by providing them for free,” he said.
Providing free face masks, Mendoza said, will also help the poor from the economic burden caused by the need to buy the masks for self-protection and contamination.
The DOH on Thursday reported the first confirmed case of the 2019-nCoV in the country in a 38-year-old Chinese female from Wuhan, China.