LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Benguet caretaker congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap donated to the Benguet General Hospital (BeGH) some P5 million worth of anti-Corona virus Disease 2019 equipment to improve the testing capacity of government hospitals in the province.
Yap, who chairs the House committee on appropriations, recently turned over to BeGH a state-of-the-art reverse transmission polymerase (RT-PCR) machine and automated extraction machine to test swab samples of suspected COVID-infected patients, especially those coming from the province, in partnership with the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), the only accredited sub-national testing laboratory in Northern Luzon.
The lawmaker pointed out his donation will make Benguet and the Cordillera closer to the mass testing needed to help contain the spread of the deadly virus.
Inspired by his favorite quote, “the only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing,” Yap claimed he knows that something should be immediately done while the people are suffering from the wrath of the global pandemic.
“Malaking tulong man ang mga naipamahagi nating relief goods, personal protective equipment, gamut, vitamins at iba pa, naniniwala akong hindi natin matutumbok ang problema kung kulang ang ating kakayahan pagdating sa aggressive na mass testing. Sa munti nating paraan, tayo po ay magbibigay ng PCR machine at automated extraction machine sa Benguet General Hospital upang makatulong na mas marami ang ating ma-itest,” Congressman Yap stressed.
He underscored the conduct of tests on a greater part of the population is one of the ultimate solutions to address the rapid spread of the virus instead of being contented with the implementation of quarantine measures and increasing the capacity of health facilities to conduct the test as well as speeding up the release of test results will eventually address the prevalence of the global pandemic.
From the reported 100 tests a day because of the manual extraction, Yap explained that the availability of the automated extraction machine will eventually increase the testing capacity of health facilities to 1,000 a day.
In the meantime, because of the absence of adequate facilities in BeGH, the administration will execute a memorandum of agreement with BGHMC, the only accredited COVID testing center in Northern Luzon, where the latter will conduct CO|VID tests using the machines but will allocate a certain number of tests per day for Benguet residents until such time that BeGH is ready with its own testing site.
According to him, the donation will be a big boost in addressing the backlog of PCR-based tests in Baguio and Benguet over the past several days.
Congressman yap admitted that there is no way that the COVID curve will be flattened without mass testing and expressed optimism that the donated machines will bring Benguet closer to a COVID-free community.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by: Armando M. Bolislis
