DOH TO PURCHASE 1,500 VENTILATORS

THE Department of Health ( DoH) plans to purchase 1,500 ventilators to be used in the treatment of coronavirus patients, an official said Wednesday as the number of cases of the respiratory disease continued to rise.

“Hopefully maayos namin at may makapag-supply (Hopefully we can fix this and find a supplier),” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a radio interview.

Vergeire said the Health department and the Department of Budget and Management were trying to find a supplier that could produce this volume of ventilators.

Several hospitals have stopped accepting Covid-19 patients because they lack ventilators and they can no longer offer the required degree of care and attention to a patient.

Vergeire said there were 1,263 ventilators in various hospitals all over the country. Of this number, 153 in hospitals are located in Metro Manila.

“We are not saying that this is enough kay an ga po in aay os po nat inangp ag po pro cure for these ventilators [because we need it] (we are processing the procurement of these ventilators),” she said.

Vergeire said scientists from the University of the Philippines (UP) are designing a more affordable ventilator that would help patients.

She said the UP-National Institutes for Health in Manila has almost finished designing the ventilator.

“Hopefully kapag lumabas po iyong kan ilang pinag-aralan na ito at gina gawa, makakuha na ta yong marami at mas mura po ito ( Hopefully when the ventilator they are studying and making comes out, we can get additional and cheaper units),” the Health official said.

The institute also developed the first Philippine-made test kits for Covid-19, which could yield “very accurate” results in two hours.