Senator Cynthia A. Villar has donated rapid test kits to the Dagupan City government in line with the local government’s continuing testing program to further stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Through the Villar SIPAG (Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance), Villar gave Rapid antigen test kits to Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim.
Lim had earlier sought the help of Villar, stressing that Dagupan needs “robust support” to navigate its response to the pandemic.
“We humbly seek your generous assistance to cover the expenses for the targeted mass testing either through funding for RT-PCR tests or rapid test kits, which we will continue to do in the succeeding months, and which will be vital in the sustainability of the measures adopted by the city government,” Lim said in a letter to Villar.
Lim said the continuing mass testing program being implemented in Dagupan is the first to be conducted by a local government unit (LGU) in Pangasinan and in Region 1.
He said beneficiaries of the mass testing program in Dagupan are persons from all vulnerable sectors, including but not limited to medical and security frontliners, market vendors, workers, and public utility drivers.
Villar has been providing all forms of assistance to the government’s initiatives to help medical frontliners and the public beat COVID-19.
“We should pool our efforts and resources to help improve the country’s testing capacity and recovery rate from the new coronavirus disease,” she said.
Just recently, the senator set up portable hand-washing stations in areas where people usually converge such as tricycle terminals, markets, and crowded communities to provide a way for the people to keep clean outside their homes.
She was also instrumental in the opening of the COVID-19 testing laboratory in her hometown in Las Pinas.
The Villar family has donated a laboratory freezer, biological refrigerator, autoclave sterilizer, and passbox to the facility.
“With this testing center, patients in Las Pinas City will no longer have to travel far and wait long for results,” Villar said.