The University of the Philippines released on 23 April 2020 implementing guidelines for proceeding with the Second Semester of Academic Year 2019-2020, which has been affected by the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon and other parts of the country.
Like other UP campuses with chemists and chemistry laboratories, UP Diliman (UPD) has been producing alcohol sanitizers—the demand for which has significantly increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These were distributed to the UPD community and the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
Dr. AC Yago of UPD’s Institute of Chemistry (IC) said a team from the institute had produced a total of more than 100 liters of isopropyl and ethyl alcohol from three batches from April 6 to 16.
As expected of the country’s national university, the University of the Philippines has been among the main institutions at the forefront of the battle against the coronavirus. The spirit of honor, excellence and compassion shines brightly among faculty, students, alumni, and staff across constituent universities nationwide.
There is the selfless courage of those who continue to serve daily in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), or as PGH Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi aptly puts it, the “people giving hope.” Despite a directive to pull out interns from medical colleges, about 214 PGH interns have volunteered to stay on duty, assisting and augmenting the hospital’s health workers. Despite the danger, PGH has accepted the appointment as one of the country’s COVID-19 referral hospitals.
The UP Diliman Department of Psychology, along with its UPD Psychosocial Services (PsycServ) program, has offered free telepsychotherapy services to frontliners, PUMs and PUIs, COVID-19 positive individuals, their relatives, and others severely affected by COVID-19.
The latter can send a text or Viber message to 09063743466 or 09167573157 with their name and concern or accomplish the form on the link http://bit.ly/PsycServPH to receive a call from a PsycServ volunteer. PsycServ operates from Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm.
Operations of “Kanlungang Palma” will begin on April 22 after the historic Palma Hall of UP Diliman (UPD) was designated an isolation area for suspected and probable cases of persons with COVID-19, according to bulletins from the UPD College of Social Sciences of Philosophy (CSSP). The shelter will handle cases coming from the UPD area.
With the increasing number of confirmed cases in Metro Cebu, more localised and active identification, surveillance and monitoring of suspect and confirmed cases could aid in stemming the tide of infections. In order to seed a more effective and efficient case finding and monitoring process among barangays, few LGUs in Metro Cebu have started to adopt digital tools that can hasten emergency response.
CoVcheck, an online community-driven web application was launched recently by a team of researchers from the FireCheck Project of the UP Cebu Center for Environmental Informatics led by Aileen Joan Vicente, Asst. Professor at the Department of Computer Science.
FireCheck gives video tutorials on how to use CoVcheck! Check it out below! Ania na ang CoVcheck, Sugbo! CoVcheck web app is now live at: https://covcheck.upcebu.edu.ph/ Ug malipayon namong ipahibawo nga sugod karong adlawa, mag-CoVcheck na ang siyudad sa Mandaue ug Naga, Cebu. Inubanan sa hiniusang pwersa sa mga local strategic planners and decision makers ug […]
The east wing of the newly renovated UP Asian Institute of Tourism (AIT) building located along Commonwealth Avenue is now COVID-19 Testing Center of Quezon City District 6.
The Manila Health Tek Lab, Inc. has delivered the locally-made coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test to the University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH).
UP-NIH is the first health facility to use the GENAMPLIFY™ COVID-19 rRT-PCR test kit under the Field Implementation which was funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD).
At least one good thing that has come out of the coronavirus pandemic is the display of bravery and heroism from ordinary people. Front healthcare frontliners to supermarket staff, from military and police personnel to garbage disposal workers, the crisis proves that there is no shortage of men and women who become heroes in our eyes simply by doing their job.
One person who certainly deserves this honor is Dr. Abundio “Bunds Balgos. A pulmonoligist and retired professor at the University of Philippines College of Medicine, Dr. Balgos led a team of experts that developed ReliefVent, a locally made, low-cost, high-quality ventilator more commonly known as Ginhawa that will soon help those who are severely ill from COVID-19.
