GenSan needs more test kits; Baguio wants PPE

GENERAL SANTOS CITY: The city government needs to acquire 5,000 testing kits and medical ventilators TO SUSTAIN ITS fiGHT AGAINST THE CORONAVIRUS disease 2019 (Covid-19).

General Santos City Mayor Ronnel Rivera told TheManila Times that health workers had no means to detect if the person under investigation was infected with Covid-19.

“It really hard for our city health officials to immediately confirm [if] the collected sample of a person under investigation ( PUI) [ is positive or not for] whether he or she is being infected by Covid- 19 disease. As of now test results are still being sent to Manila,” Rivera said.

Dr. Jett Oco, city health office department head, said the enhanced quarantine had made it difficult to air transport swab samples of PUIs and persons under monitoring in the city and in the provinces of Sarangani and South Cotabato.

“Our problem is we cannot send the swab samples to Manila because of the travel ban in Luzon,” Oco said. “We would like to hasten the testing to prevent the disease from further spreading.”

“We are requesting the DoH (Department of Health) to make the necessary evaluation for the feasibility of the testing center,” Rivera said.

He also said additional protective gear for health workers would need to be acquired soon.

In Baguio City, the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) is running out of supply of the required personal protective equipment (PPE) for its health workers.

BGHMC chief Dr. Ricardo Ruñez Jr. said based on the hospital’s inventory, the available PPE for health workers would only last until Friday.

Ruñez appealed to concerned government agencies and the local government to provide them the necessary PPE to prevent their health workers from getting exposed to patients with suspected

Covid-19 symptoms.