The UP Resilience Institute (UPRI) recently launched a board game called Sakunwari, a multi-lingual, tabletop and role-playing game set in a time of complex disasters, reflecting current issues we face today like climate change and the ongoing pandemic.
According to Dr. Kristoffer Berse, UP Associate Professor and UPRI’s director for Research and Creative Work, who led the development of the game, Sakunwari was developed as part of the UP COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team’s WOKE4COVID project.
Following the Typhoon, in Memorandum RAG 2021–53 dated December 20, 2021, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Richard Philip Gonzalo asked concerned units across the UP System to reach out to affected students. These units advised students to file applications, especially those with no records in the Student Learning Assistance System (SLAS). The University will document students needing support and fast-track financial aid processing.
“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.”
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.
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.
Meanwhile, UP Center for Women and Gender Studies Director Dr. Nathalie Africa-Verceles said VAWC is the “most egregious manifestation of women’s subordinate position in the society.”
“Violence against women is gender-based and systemic. It happens to women because they are women. It happens to women because they are women and all women and girls are vulnerable to VAWC. It’s about male power and control over women and takes many forms,” Verceles said.
The University of the Philippines (UP) joined an alliance for media coverage and an advocacy campaign for the 2022 Philippine national elections.
A signatory to the GMA 7-led initiative, UP President Danilo Concepcion represented UP in the launch of the Eleksyon 2022 alliance and the “Dapat Totoo” advocacy campaign, held virtually on November 26, 2021.
As in past partnerships for national elections coverages, UP is one of the top Philippine universities to make its research and expertise available for public educational purposes.
Saloma said that they need backtrack samples from early November as well as other samples arriving in the Philippines. This also includes positive samples from the airport and from different places in the country so that they can conduct more intense sequence, Saloma explained.
For the University of the Philippines (UP), volunteerism is crucial in nurturing civic engagement and strengthening community spirit among UP students and their partners. With COVID-19, students may now organize meaningful volunteering projects with safety and program concerns in place.
