What has kept us busy at home with the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in effect? Many students who have had their classes suspended find comfort in their smartphones and all its applications, in home makeovers, in gardening, and in doing whatever hobbies (or chores) that help keep them busy. Since online classes are still ongoing […]
The delivery of locally developed COVID-19 real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test kits is finally moving after getting the nod from the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to the weekly report of President Rodrigo Duterte to Congress, which was released on Monday, medical research company Manila HealthTek will be coordinating with hospitals that would receive the GenAmplify COVID-19 detection kits for proper training of their workers on using the test kits.
The GenAmplify kits, developed by local scientists from the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) and the University of the Philippines (UP)-National Institutes of Health (NIH), would serve around 27,000 tests.
The UP Vanguard, a group of officials and members of the reserve officer training corps at the state university, said in a statement on Saturday that they raised the amount to buy PPEs for frontliners working at Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center in Marikina City and Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City.
The University of the Philippines Open University Office of Ugnayan ng Pahinungod (OUPahinungod) calls on UPOU students who are involved in any kind of volunteer work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On 25 March 2020, the survey was released through the official Facebook page of the office, Ugnayan ng Pahinungód UPOU. It is aimed to simply document the volunteer activities of UPOU students, especially since UPOU has a number of students in the healthcare industry, and many are connected with different government and non-government organizations.
The FireCheck Project team and the University of the Philippines Cebu have developed CoVcheck, a web-based application that allows the local government to collect data from its constituents about cases or potential cases of infection. By doing so, the concerned agencies – health units, disaster management offices among others, may be able to respond to the community’s needs as soon as necessary.
The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Office of Student Affairs (OSA) launched an online tool to respond to the concerns of UPOU students amid the COVID-19 outbreak. This is the Offering Sincere Advocacy (O.S.A.) Helpdesk.
O.S.A. Helpdesk is part of UPOU’s response to COVID-19 safety and awareness. OSA Helpdesk urges UPOU students to report their needs and concerns not just in relation to academic matters but also concerns related to their mental health.
The bayanihan spirit is vibrant in UPV, as seen in various initiatives undertaken by UPV alumni, students, other constituents, as well as some members of the community. It has been three weeks since community quarantine measures have been imposed in the Province of Iloilo. Nonetheless, cash and in-kind donations have been flowing in, thanks to the initiative of benevolent people, whose sense of solidarity and genuine empathy for those affected, outweigh the desire for personal convenience.
The creation of the National Training Center for Biosafety and Biosecurity (NTCBB) under the National Institutes of Health was approved by the UP Board of Regents on February 22, 2018. The NTCBB becomes the 11th component institute of the NIH, along with three centers and more than 40 study groups. With the approval of the Center, the BOR also approved the creation of the National Biosafety Framework that covers aspects of both biosafety and biosecurity.
UP Visayas is gearing up to produce more alcohol solutions for use in sanitation in the current public health crisis.
The School of Technology (SoTech) is leading the production of ethanol as an initiative of UPV chemists and the UPV administration.
With the continued shortage of personal protective equipment (PPEs), masks, and other safety materials against COVID-19, a lot of people are forced to reuse and recycle equipment that are supposed to be disposable! This is especially alarming in the hospital setting, particularly in medical facilities handling patients who tested positive of the virus.
Knowing how dangerous that can be, University of the Philippines (UP) engineers have found a way to help our frontliners by designing a special UV cabinet for disinfecting hospital gowns.
