In March 2020, the Department of Health confirmed the community transmission of COVID-19 in the country. Highly contagious, the disease was expected to spread rapidly. This prompted then President Rodrigo Duterte to place Metro Manila under community quarantine, as the capital became the pandemic first epicenter in the Philippines. At the time, the country had only one, manual testing center for coronavirus detection.By April that same year, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) would inaugurate the country’s first automated RT-PCR testing facility for Covid-19. Under the leadership of then Sen. Richard Gordon as PRC chair and CEO, this number grew to 14 molecular laboratories nationwide, capable of conducting 48,000 tests daily.
In May 2021, PRC had done more than three million RT-PCR tests across the country, and would top four million tests in September. At the height of the pandemic, PRC accounted for one out of every four RT-PCR tests nationwide.
PRC also introduced the saliva RT-PCR test in January 2021, offering a less invasive and more affordable alternative to the nose-and-throat swab. To date, it has tested over 5.6 million swab and saliva samples.
One might ask where the country’s testing capacity would be without PRC’s molecular laboratories. For its crucial role in providing such services, PRC drew praise from Vince Dizon, then deputy chief implementer of the National Action Plan against Covid-19, who said: “Frankly, the government was at a loss on how it could increase its testing capacity. We went to Senator Gordon, and in classic Gordon style, he said, ‘We can solve this together.’”
PRC also acquired negative pressure ambulance units specifically designed to transport patients with the contagious disease, allowing it to provide emergency medical services to Covid patients.
Isolation facilities
It also collaborated with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Metro Manila mayors, and schools to turn unused classrooms into isolation facilities (IFs) for asymptomatic and mild cases, to reserve hospitals’ Covid bed capacity for severe cases. Face-to-face classes had not resumed at the time.
Four IFs, with a total bed capacity of 476, were set up at Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines Diliman, De La Salle University and Adamson University. When the IFs closed after the surge in April 2021, they had served over 5,000 patients.
As government hospitals’ bed capacities were not enough to meet the exponential increase in the number of Covid patients, PRC collaborated with the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP), the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) and 62 other hospitals by setting up a total of 125 emergency field hospitals (EFHs) and medical tents in their premises. When the EFHs and medical tents were folded in the last quarter of 2021, they had served 65,856 patients.
Cash grants, meals
PRC also gave more than P76 million in multipurpose cash grants to 21,791 families that suffered an economic shock because of the pandemic. Among the beneficiaries were nearly 5,000 families directly hit by the virus. Over 30,400 families also received either a three-day to two-week food ration or rice and vegetables, depending on the assessment.
Gordon also ordered the deployment of 23 Hot Meals on Wheels, the Red Cross’s humanitarian food trucks, to communities most vulnerable to Covid-19. Food trucks were deployed in Albay, Pasay City, Quezon City, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo, Davao, Bacolod, Marikina, Olongapo, and other places; each truck served 100 hot meals daily. PRC provided 16,100 ready-to-eat meals.
Vax drive
As of this writing, PRC is still actively campaigning in the communities for the people to get the Covid vaccination and booster shots. As an auxiliary to the government in its humanitarian tasks, PRC has supported the DOH in its vaccination efforts since March 2021.
PRC uses three approaches to reach as many people as possible with vaccines: the PRC Vaccination Centers, the PRC Mobile Vaccination Teams, and the PRC Vaccination Buses, or “Bakuna Bus.” To date, it has administered more than 1.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines and boosters and has fully inoculated 377,579 individuals.
PRC was cited for its Covid-19 response by then Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., former MMDA Chair Benhur Abalos, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) Movement President Francesco Rocca, and IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain.
“The dedication of the PRC volunteers and staff inspires all of us to do more, to do better and to go further, to reach the last mile and to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable people,” Chapagain said. To Gordon, he said: “You have inspired a generation of volunteers to join the Red Cross’s humanitarian journey. I thank you for your outstanding leadership. And please continue to keep inspired.”
