A total of 150 wooden folding beds/cots (teheras) were donated to the local government of Dumaguete City recently to respond to the city’s bed shortage in its isolation facilities amid the continuing rise in the number of CoViD-19 positive cases.
The turnover made at the Dumaguete City High School quarantine facility in Barangay Calindagan was made possible through Engr. Edgar Ygnalaga Jr., Buildings and Grounds Department superintendent and Atty. Joshua Francisco Ablong, Human Resource Development manager, representing Silliman University; Dr. Maria Sarah Talla, Dumaguete City Health Officer and Atty. Manuel Arbon, Dumaguete City Legal Officer, representing the city government.
The university’s CoViD-19 Crisis Management Group led by Dr. Walden Ursos in a meeting with Dr. Talla earlier this month agreed on the donation after the latter admitted that “the number one need of the city these days are beds for the isolation facilities,” even as she disclosed that the different barangays in the city have their own isolation facilities, but beds are limited.
Dr. Betty McCann, university president, said the donation is one of the efforts initiated by Silliman University to help the city as it faces “rough sailing in the fight against the virus.”
“Silliman is always ready to help the local government in any capacity it can as part of our social responsibility to the community,” Dr. McCann said.
Designated as isolation facilities in the Silliman campus are Davao Cottage and Channon Hall with the approval of the local Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) for those with mild cases and those with first and second generation exposures to persons positive with the virus.
Dr. Ursos said that this move has helped the city decongest their isolation facilities. He added that Channon Hall and Davao Cottage are for the exclusive use of the university’s faculty, staff, and students infected with CoViD-19 where they pay a minimal fee to cover the utilities and maintenance expenses.
Aside from Channon Hall and Davao Cottage, Vernon Hall is also being utilized as an isolation facility for frontliners from the Silliman University Medical Center infected with the virus. “Similarly, this has eased the demand for bed spaces in the hospital,” Dr. Ursos explained.
Prof. Jane Annette Belarmino, the university vice-president for development, appealed for donations and/or collaboration among the alumni and friends of Silliman to help in addressing the needs of those who are in the city’s isolation facilities as Dumaguete continues to struggle with this pandemic.
Belarmino said that any help, whether big or small, is welcome and that her office is ready to work with interested donors for a more coordinated and sustainable program to help the local government unit.
As of this writing, Dr. Talla informed there are now more than 500 CoViD-19 positive cases in the city. – NWI
