OPAV: 4K food packs given to VSMMC frontliners since July

OPAV says that it has distributed over 4,000 food packs to medical frontliners in the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) since the first week of July 2020. (Photo courtesy of OPAV)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) reported to have distributed over 4,000 food packs to medical workers at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) since the first week of July.

In an emailed press release on Sunday, August 9, OPAV said 320 food packs were being delivered to VSMMC, a Department of Health-run hospital in Cebu City, three times every week. VSMMC is the largest facility catering to COVID-19 cases in the region.

“We are providing our frontliners with the much-needed support, not just in terms of personal protective equipment (PPE), but also food as an expression of our gratitude to them. We will continue to extend whatever assistance we can give to our medical workers who are selflessly helping our country fight the COVID-19 pandemic,” OPAV Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino said in the PR.

Dino also said he was thankful for the private sector organizations that extended help in the COVID-19 response in the Visayas through his office citing that the partnership with the private sector had helped boost the government’s COVID response in the region.

“Our partnership with the private sector has also been instrumental in boosting the government’s COVID response in the region with the help of their donations,” Secretary Dino said.

According to OPAV, the private sector had extended donations spanning from PPEs to Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines through OPAV.

Aside from the meals, OPAV also cited the four-month run of the Malasakit buses that boarded frontliners amid the lack of public transport during the enhanced community quarantine period.

On August 3, the 10 to 15-unit fleet made its last trip on August 3 following the downgrade of Cebu City’s quarantine status to a general community quarantine (GCQ) since public transportation is already available under the present quarantine status of the city.

OPAV said the Malsakit buses boarded 80,000 health care workers during the stint.

READ: Malasakit buses to ply last trip on Aug. 3

“The OPAV has been implementing various initiatives to address the concerns arising from the pandemic. These include providing free transportation to frontliners by deploying Malasakit buses and since the pandemic started, by providing PCR and automated extraction machines, extraction and detection kits, swab kits and other consumables to augment testing capacity in the Visayas,” the OPAV press statement read./dbs