Category: COVID 19-RELATED RESPONSE

Dr. Teodoro J. Herbosa, advisor of the National Task Force for COVID-19, called on the private sector to help through campaigns such as Resbakuna sa Botika, in which vaccines are administered in pharmacies.  

He added that the DoH is developing a mechanism of self-reporting of tests, given that many Filipinos have been resorting to antigen testing at home. However, this will take some time as there is “lots of complexity in the self-reporting system,” mainly the question of test quality and accuracy.

The Philippine Genome Center Visayas has already received its set of Next Generation Sequencers to capacitate the center for whole genome sequencing to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants in the region. PGC Visayas acquired the sequencers through the funding support of the Department of Budget and Management. Installation of the sequencers commenced last Thursday (Jan. 20) at the PGC Visayas Laboratories at the Regional Research Center of UPV in Miagao, Iloilo

“In terms of projections, we hope na baka third week [of February] o sa March, bumaba ito (number of new COVID-19 cases). Hinihintay lang kasi natin ‘yong provinces,” said Jomar Rabajante of the University of the Philippines (UP) Pandemic Response Team.

(In terms of projections, we hope that by the third week of February or March, the number of new cases has decreased. We’re still waiting for the provinces.)

Rabajante said that currently, the bulk of new COVID-19 cases come from the provinces since the National Capital Region (NCR) is already in a “declining phase.”

Dr. Sanley Abila leads a team of researchers in the University of the Philippines Visayas who are studying the social vulnerabilities of the maritime seafaring occupation, as current conditions exacerbate mental health conditions of seafarers.

The laboratory will open for a dry run at the UP-Mindanao campus in Davao, a move which officials say could expedite whole-genome sequencing and analyses of specimens taken from people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Mindanao

The Philippine Genome Center Visayas has already received its set of Next Generation Sequencers to capacitate the center for whole genome sequencing to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants in the region. PGC Visayas acquired the sequencers through the funding support of the Department of Budget and Management. Installation of the sequencers commenced last Thursday (Jan. 20) at the PGC Visayas Laboratories at the Regional Research Center of UPV in Miagao, Iloilo.

The Philippine Genome Center continues to conduct genomic sequencing and expand its operations to detect variants of COVID-19 that are present in the country. It has already recorded more than 500 cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

Dr. Jomar Rabajante of the UP Pandemic Response Team observes that there is a slowing increase of COVID-19 cases in NCR but cautions that the uptick in the other provinces, accompanied by low vaccination rates, may pose challenges to healthcare capacity.

According to UP researchers that led the clinical studies of lagundi as adjunct treatment for mild COVID-19 symptoms on patients without comorbidities, taking the prescribed dosages will ease the symptoms.

Dr. Jomar Rabajante, the UP Pandemic Response Team’s modeling and analytics lead, shared that we may see a peak of 20,000 to 40,000 active cases between mid-January to the third week of February.