The City of Manila is the capital of the Philippines. Mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso proved that to the Filipino people when he implemented avenues for free testing operations for the COVID-19 crisis. Manila just had open its Coronavirus drive-thru and walk-in testing centers.
On July 15, Wednesday, Manila city government launched the first drive-thru Coronavirus disease-2019 testing center in front of Andres Bonifacio Monument. It can accommodate 200 tests in a day. Gladly, the second drive-thru finally opens on July 18 in Quirino Grandstand and it can conduct 700 tests within the day, higher than in the Lawton area. Both testing facilities are operational from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday. It is available for Manila and non-Manila residents FOR FREE. According to Mayor Isko, the Manila Health Doctors (MHD) will get blood samples that will be processed from the newly bought three serology machines. He’s also planning to buy a fourth machine to increase the testing capacity to 89,600 per month. The mayor realized that people want to be tested, but they don’t have access. “Totoo pala na ang tao, gusto niyang magpa-test, pero wala siyang access. Second problem is economic, walang pera, hindi kumita. Ngayon nagkaroon ng libre, dumagsa,” Isko Moreno said on free mass testing.
After the opening of two drive-thru testing facilities, Manila city opens its first walk-in testing center for the COVID-19 pandemic free of charge. Similar to the preceding way, the city residents and non-residents will be accommodated, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday, regardless of what their reasons are. In fact, a lot of them just wanted an assurance that they didn’t get the virus for their peace of mind. Mayor Isko stated that he placed the walk-in center outside the hospital to lessen the exposure just like the drive-thru concept. He added that they will open more walk-in centers in Manila’s public hospitals such as Ospital ng Maynila, Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center, Ospital ng Tondo, and Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital to increase the testing capacity of the city.
In spite of a large improvement in the Manila city government’s mass testing, Mayor Isko Moreno asks for donations to sustain the COVID-19 crisis testing operations. He professed that they already received P10Million donations and would use to buy more serology machines to expand free mass testing.
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