Silliman University in Dumaguete City donated 150 wooden folding beds/cots or teheras to the local government recently, in response to the bed shortage experienced in various isolation facilities amid the continuing rise in the number of Covid-19 positive cases.
The turnover at the Dumaguete City High School quarantine facility in Barangay Calindagan was attended by Engr. Edgar Ygnalaga Jr., buildings and grounds superintendent, and lawyer Joshua Francisco Ablong – Human Resource Development manager, representing SU; Dr. Maria Sarah Talla – Dumaguete City health officer, and City Legal Officer Manuel Arbon for the city government.
The SU Covid-19 Crisis Management Group, led by Dr. Walden Ursos, in a meeting with Talla on June 7, agreed to make 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 very limited in number.
SU president Betty Cernol McCann said the beds donation is one of the efforts initiated by the university to help Dumaguete as it faces rough sailing in the “fight” against the virus, a press release from the school said.
“Silliman is always ready to help the local government in any capacity it can, as part of our social responsibility to the community,” McCann said.
With approval from the local Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, SU has designated both the Davao Cottage and Channon Hall as isolation facilities for those who have mild cases and those with first and second generation exposures to Covid-infected persons.
Ursos said that the move has been helping the city decongest the isolation facilities even as he explained that those who are isolated or quarantined in Channon Hall and Davao Cottage are the university’s faculty, staff, and students infected with Covid-19 for a very minimal fee, to cover the utilities and maintenance expenses, the press release said.
Aside from Channon and Davao Cottage, Vernon Hall is also being utilized as an isolation facility for frontliners from the SU Medical Center, who were infected with the virus.
“The move eases the demand for the bed spaces capacity of the hospital,” Ursos added.
SU Vice President for Development Jane Annette Belarmino, for her part, calls for donations and/or collaboration among the alumni and friends of Silliman to help in addressing the needs of those in the city’s isolation facilities as Dumaguete continues to struggle with the pandemic.
Belarmino said any help, whether big or small, is welcome and that her office is ready to work with donors for a more coordinated and sustainable program to help the LGU, the press release added.*
