By Minerva Newman
CEBU CITY – The Department of Health-Central Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-CVCHD) and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-ADC) forged an agreement Friday to establish the DOH-COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) center in SHS-ADC’s satellite school on General Maxilom Avenue, Cebu City to augment the existing center located at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
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The memorandum of agreement, signed by DOH Regional Director Dr. Jaime Baernadas and SHS-ADC President Fr. Manuel Uy, would allow the DOH and its authorized personnel and representatives to access and use one of the buildings located inside the premises of the SHS-ADC Satellite School. The DOH shall be in-charge in setting up and maintaining the site, including the necessary manpower complement and logistics, which shall be composed of:
· Quarantine Area of fifty (50) beds, which may be adjusted when warranted by its necessity;
· Triage Area for patients;
· Temporary Laboratory Facility for testing of Covid-19;
· DOH Operation Center;
· Equipment, machinery and related appendices or tools;
· Other functionalities deemed essential for the valid operation by DOH inside the premises.
The SHS-ADC shall allow DOH access and use of its properties without any fees, rentals or similar charges.
VSMMC is the only COVID-19 proficient molecular testing facility at the sub national level in the Visayas and with the establishment of the COVID-19 center at the SHS-ADC the Visayas region will now have two testing centers.
Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino a Sacred Heart School for Boys Batch '85 Foundation Inc., and fellow Sacred Heart School alumni Mario King and Edmund Liu worked to establish the Covid-19 Center in Cebu and in the region.
"This is the time where we need to lend a helping hand in order to fight Covid-19,” Dino said and thanked SHS-ADC president Fr. Uy and its board members for allowing the government to use its school for the general welfare of all.
30,000 test kits arrived in Cebu from Korea
The Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) facilitated and expedited the purchase and shipment of 30,000 COVID-19 test kits from Korea that arrived in Cebu Friday which will be used at the VSMMC where COVID-19 testing is being done.
Dino thanked Cthe ebu City government for the purchase of the 20,000 test kits, and another 20,000 donated by the Cristina Lee Dino Foundation, and Kim Wong for the testing activities for Cebu and the Visayas region.
Patients who are tagged with influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) are the priority for testing, DOH said.
OPAV with the support of President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Bong Go expedited the purchase and shipment of the kits and PPE’s to Cebu, Dino added.