House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco is urging the Department of Health (DOH) and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to tap unregistered nurses as additional health workers to supplement the current health workforce in the country amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Velasco suggested that these unregistered nurses can work under the supervision of a registered nurse or doctor through a special arrangement with the PRC.

“Since na-postpone din recently ‘yung nursing board exam, we can actually tap ‘yung mga supposedly magbo-board exam and use them as health workers (Since the nursing board exam was recently postponed, we can actually tap those who were supposed to take the board exam and use them as health workers,” Velasco said. “They are resources that we can actually use to help fight the pandemic.”

Citing April 25 DOH data, Velasco noted that a total of 17,365 health workers have been infected with Covid-19 and 195 of them are active cases.

The same data showed that 88 health workers have died, while 17,082 have recovered during the same period.

He said the PRC has decided to postpone this year’s first batch of the nursing board exam scheduled on May 30 and 31 upon the request of the Philippine Nursing Association as the country faced a surge in coronavirus cases.

The exam was rescheduled to November 21 and 22 this year.

He, meanwhile, reminded the public to do their part in minimizing the spread of the virus and continue to observe minimum health standards even as cases have gone down from as high as 15,000 daily infections to more than 7,000 last Monday.

“Napapansin ko (I noticed that) when I go around na (that) there’s still a lot of people not following the protocols,” Velasco noted. “Meaning, ‘yung pinaka-basic man lang, ‘yung pagsuot natin ng face mask. Kahit iyon man lamang — ‘yung pinaka-basic (Meaning, at least the very basic (protocols), such as the wearing of face mask, [should be followed]. At least just that — the very basic).”