Cocolife, the biggest Filipino-owned stock life insurance company, recently donated P1 million to the University of the Philippines Manila – National Institute of Health (UP-NIH) for the purchase of one Real Time- Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machine to help step-up efforts for coronavirus testing in the country. RT-PCR Machines are used to make a minuscule amount of very distinct viral genetic material detectable, which significantly improves the timely release of COVID-19 test results in the country.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially announced its approval of GenAmplifyTM Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) RT-PCR Detection Kit on its advisory dated 3 April 2020. This is the first locally-made, PCR-based COVID-19 test kit for commercial use. It was developed by Dr. Raul V. Destura and the scientists of the UP Manila National Institutes of Health (UPM-NIH), with funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The testing kits will be manufactured by the Manila Health Tek, Inc.

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 […]

“During disasters, the most basic needs are to be attended,” says Dr. Johnrev Guilaran, clinical psychologist and assistant professor of the College of Arts and Sciences, UP Visayas during an orientation for the frontliners of the university’s six dormitories at the Miagao campus.

These included dorm managers, dorm staff and janitors assigned therein. The dorms continued their operation for the stranded students of UPV in view of the COVID19.

A young instructor from the University of the Philippines-Manila’s College of Allied Medical Professions (CAMP) has earned the admiration of netizens for going beyond the call of duty amid the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

With classes suspended, Physical Therapy instructor Marvin Louie Ignacio devotes most of his time assembling and packing hundreds of face shields for medical frontliners.

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.