NGCP donates booths, kits for COVID-19 testing in Quezon City

Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star) - June 19, 2020 - 12:00am

https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/06/19/2021815/ngcp-donates-booths-kits-covid-19-testing-quezon-city

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) turned over yesterday 50 units of testing booths and 10,000 rapid test kits to the Quezon City local government to aid frontliners in the battle against coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

NGCP said the testing booths and rapid test kits, including test administration and results interpretation, are part of the company’s continuing initiatives to support the national and local government’s COVID-19 response efforts.

The local government will start testing on Monday (June 22), barring unforeseen circumstances.

“NGCP understands that this will be a long and hard-fought battle. We want to make sure that our donations will help ease the burden on LGUs and that our support will translate to direct results such as identification of COVID-19 cases. In this way, the process from identification to response and treatment will be expedited,” NGCP said.

As of June 17, the Quezon City government had 2,725 confirmed cases, of which 968 are considered active or recovering, 1,422 have recovered while 215 others died.

So far, NGCP’s COVID-19 donations include a P1 billion donation of grocery items to over 1,000 local government units and medical equipment to more than 300 hospitals and city/municipal/rural health units.

The medical equipment donation includes ambulances turned over to University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), Philippine Orthopedic Center, Quirino Memorial Center, Philippine Heart Center, and Biñan Doctors Hospital.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines, SteraMist disinfection/decontamination units, and closed suction systems were also turned over to various hospitals.

Isolation rooms with negative pressure will also be constructed for Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, including three Class N isolation rooms and two Class Q isolation rooms with negative pressure, will be used for mild and severe COVID-19 cases, respectively.

Other NGCP donations are the Meals on Wheels feeding program for indigent communities; a P5 million donation to Project Ugnayan which distributes supermarket vouchers to economically displaced families in Metro Manila, and distribution of face masks and other PPEs to LGUs and medical frontliners.

NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders Henry Sy, Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.