Reports on mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, mainly on D614G which affects the spike protein on the virus’ surface, have led the public to ask whether these changes make the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease more infectious, lethal, or on the other hand, benign and less transmissible.

As the official count went beyond 61,000 (as of July 16) confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, more participants are joining the community of health educators, learners and practitioners following the UP Webinar Series “STOP COVID DEATHS: Clinical Management Updates”.

The UP COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team (UP PRT) has launched “CITY vs COVID”, a feature within the endcov.ph dashboard that provides information on how cities are recovering from COVID-19 over time, based on DOH and LGU data.

Users can simply select their city to generate charts showing the latest number of cases, deaths, and recoveries, and information on their locality’s recovery rate, fatality rate, and current phase of community quarantine. Users can also find COVID-19 statistics of past dates by hovering their cursor on the bar aligned to the specific date they’re looking for.

The University of the Philippines Open University’s Faculty of Management and Development Studies (FMDS), Master of Arts in Nursing (MAN) program in collaboration with the Association of Nursing Service Administrators of the Philippines Inc. (ANSAP) conducted Let’s Talk it Over (LTiO) webinar titled “Nursing Service Preparedness amidst the Pandemic” on 22 July 2020 via the UPOU Networks.

The word kaagapay is typically associated with being at one’s side. Its constituents, the affix, ka-, which indicates relation, and its root, agapay, or support, together connote mutual assistance, trust, care, and respect from individuals who desire that others become fully functional persons.

With these qualities in mind, the University of the Philippines (UP) launched the Kaagapay sa Pagaaral ng mga Iskolar ng Bayan or #KaagapayUP project on July 21, 2020. The project’s primary aim is to help UP’s financially challenged students acquire the resources to engage in the remote and blended learning solutions instituted by the University in response to COVID-19. The launch was broadcast live over Zoom, and through the TVUP Youtube channel.

Naglabas kamakailan ng infographic ukol sa COVID-19 ang UP Diliman (UPD) Task Force on COVID-19 (UPD Task Force) sa komunidad ng UPD kampus at mga karatig-komunidad upang mas maintindihan ng nakararami ang sakit na ito at bilang tugon sa patuloy na paglaban sa pandemya.

Ayon sa UPD Task Force, ang inisyatibang ito sa pakikipagtulungan ng UP Health Service at Kolehiyo ng Edukasyon (CEd) ay bahagi ng pangmatagalang kampanyang pangkomunidad ng UPD laban sa COVID-19.  Layunin nito na mahikayat ang lahat na magtulungan upang masugpo ang pagkalat ng sakit bukod sa pagbibigay impormasyon sa pag-iwas na mahawaan ng COVID-19.

Two new state-of-the-art ambulances were turned over to the University Health Service (UHS) by Chancellor Fernando C. Sanchez, Jr in a simple ceremony held on July 10 at the driveway of BM Gonzalez Hall.

Dr. Jessie Imelda Foronda-Walde, UHS director, accepted a mock-up vehicle key to signify the turnover from Chancellor Sanchez of the two ambulances.

The two ambulances are equipped with advance cardiovascular life support (ACLS) equipment, ambulatory external defibrillators (AED) to resuscitate a person who goes on sudden cardiac arrest, a nebulizer, suction machine, and oxygen supply.

There’s a new, faster way of searching through the University Library’s collection of materials with “Tuklas,” a web-scale discovery service that can search across the print and electronic resources of an entire library in real time.

“Tuklas” functions much like an online public access catalog or OPAC, where users can search through the various library resources such as books, academic journals, theses and dissertations, archival documents and articles from local newspapers and magazines.

“We want our patients to be able to go back to the lives they had before being critically ill.” This is the end goal of physiatrists in providing rehabilitative care and treatment, as emphasized by Dr. Celso Bate of The Medical City and the Victor R. Potenciano Medical Center, in the eleventh episode of UP’s STOP COVID DEATHS webinar series on July 3.

And that journey back is a long one.

In “Rehabilitation for Critical Care Survivors of COVID-19”, Bate clarified that because the disease is new, rehabilitative care and treatment protocols have yet to be established; but most helpful are existing strategies used in patients with prolonged confinement in the intensive care unit (ICU) and/or who are afflicted with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

UP CoPES is the system-wide umbrella committee for various psychosocial support programs being implemented by Pahinungod in UP’s constituent universities. It has three working areas: kamalayan (awareness promotion); ugnayan (setting up referral mechanisms, partnerships, support); and, kasanayan (training volunteers who can, in turn, also train others).

With the Ugnayan ng Pahinungòd celebrating its first year of reactivation under UP President Danilo Concepcion, as the official volunteer service program of the UP System, Pahinungòd Constituent Universities can now also collaborate through UP CoPES to coordinate and improve the psychosocial aspect of their volunteer and public service efforts. Through this body, UP’s CUs may combine their strengths to provide swift, robust solutions to emergencies, as well as to share best practices in training and public service.