The Office of the President stays true to its promise to assist Bacolod City amid the worsening COVID-19 health crisis.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said that 10,000 test kits, 2,000 PPEs (personal protective equipment) and 400 Remdesivir antiviral medicine are being sent to Bacolod via the Bacolod-Silay Airport.
Remdesivir is an antiviral medicine that the US Food and Drug Administration has permitted to be used to treat patients with COVID-19.
Leonardia said he received a text and a call from Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the Philippines’ Declared National Policy Against COVID-19, that the test kits, PPEs and the medicine were to arrive in Bacolod today.
The COVID-19 packages according to Galvez are allocated for Bacolod upon the instructions from President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Bong Go.
“Kailangan po ng cold storage ‘yung test kits and Remdesivir,” said Galvez in his text message to Leonardia.
Each Remdesivir vial costs approximately ₱ 10,000.
The packages were in response to Leonardia’s urgent appeal for help, addressed to President Duterte last Tuesday [August 25].
Recently, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, member of the National IATF; Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino, RIATF-Visayas deputy chief implementer Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, and DOH-7 regional director Jaime Bernadas met with Leonardia and other City officials to discuss the actions needed to effectively curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Dino also assured Leonardia that the national government will support Bacolod “all the way.”
Cimatu and Dino have been deployed by President Duterte on a special mission to Cebu City at the height of the spike of COVID-19 cases there. Feliciano was Cimatu’s partner in the mission.
In yesterday’s meeting Bacolod City officials, Cimatu promised to consolidate all forces to help Bacolod City by undertaking the same actions they took in Cebu City, which is considered as the COVID-19 epicenter.
“This is the formula that we had adopted in Cebu: bring down the battlefield to the barangay and let the barangay captains do the rest,” he said.
Leonardia said the city government will cooperate with the augmentation team and do everything to control the spread of the virus in the City.
(News and photo courtesy by Bacolod City Public Information Office)