Capitol to buy 20 new ambulances
The Cebu Provincial Capitol | CDN Digital File
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Cebu Provincial Government is planning to buy 20 brand-new ambulances as part of its efforts to beef up healthcare facilities and equipment in the province.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia on Monday, November 8 said the Capitol is set to release funds for the purchase of 20 ambulances.
These vehicles will then be deployed to all 16 hospitals in the provide.
“We are processing the PR (purchase request). (These are primarily) for all of our provincial hospitals. This ambulance is not just a patient transport vehicle. It’s an ambulance that is fully equipped to treat patients while on board. That’s 20 units. Two each for our Provincial Hospitals and the balance will be distributed to our district hospitals,” Garcia told reporters on Monday.
The governor, during her regular press conference on Monday, also presented what the provincial government has accomplished in the fight against COVID-19 in what seemed to be a response to criticisms hurled against her administration.
For Garcia, her policies on improving air ventilation in enclosed public transportation, and aggressively distributing free supplementary medicines were some of the factors that helped bring down active cases in the province.
“I would like to think that our insistence of proper ventilation on all of our public transport and of course the vitamins, the subsidized vitamins that we are making available to the public and given for free to our medical frontliners,” she said.
“I was criticized before why I was pushing for steam inhalation, for seeing to it that you take care of yourself, live a healthy life, eat healthy. It is all a matter of learning from all of these and perhaps, you know acquiring a little humility in believing that you don’t have the exclusivity of knowledge because no one really is an expert in COVID-19,” she added.
Like its capital, the COVID-19 situation in Cebu province has been improving after experiencing its ‘worst surge of infections’ last August and September.
Data from the Provincial Health Office (PHO) showed that as of November 7, active cases stood at 198 only.
The same report also stated that the occupancy rate among COVID-dedicated beds in the province’s hospitals is now only at 2 percent. This meant that only 12 out of 474 beds are occupied.
Isolation centers, on the other hand, only have a utilization rate of 1 percent.
Cebu province is currently under Alert Level 2 until November 14. /rcg
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