The Visayas Primary Healthcare Services, Inc. is implementing a project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ReachHealth Project administered by the RTI International to provide technical assistance to the Local Government Units (LGUs) of Bogo City, Tabuelan, San Remigio and Medellin, in the implementation of various capacity-building activities to support community-based COVID-19 response to delay, contain the transmission of COVID-19, and mitigate the effects of the pandemic in their localities.
In order to start collaboration with the Tabuelan LGU, project team members Petty Orbeta de Castro, Edgar Gahisan and Irish Grace Ramirez visited Tabuelan on August 24, 2020. They met with Renante C. Cordero and Ian Cruz P. Arnado, both staff members of the office of the Mayor, Vincent Comeros and Arlie Perez, both staff members of the office of the vice-mayor, Municipal Public Health Nurse Ms. Gerra Lahaylahay, Rural Health Midwive Evelyn Sarzuelo and Karen Balbuena, and seven nurses of the Nurse Deployment Project (NDP). The project discussed with them the project, its objectives and activities with the distribution of the project brochures to them.
A meeting with Vice-mayor Rex Casiano T. Gerona was set for August 26 after the above meeting.
On August 26, project staff Dr. Erlinda Posadas, Ms. Ramirez and non-project support staff Lourdes Geolin, met with Vice-Mayor Gerona, Vincent Comeros, Ms. Lahaylahay and ABC President Felix Rubin in order to discuss about the project. They were also provided with a two-page list of project activities.
Tabuelan has a total of 12 barangays and the grant agreement provides for training of BHERTs from 8 barangays or a total of 64 participants. Like the Municipalities of Tabuelan and Medellin, RTI will give trainings for additional BHERTs so that all 12 barangays will be covered. Instead of eight barangays that the VPHCS will train, it will train nine barangays involving 64 participants and RTI will train three barangays, involving 21 participants, for a total of 85 participants.
Vice-mayor Gerona suggested that there be four barangays per training, with eight participants per training or a total of 32 participants per training.
During the said meeting, it was agreed that there will be an ABC meeting of the barangay captains on September 1, 1 p.m. to discuss about the project and to plan for the number of participants per barangay for the BHERTs training. On the same day, there will also be a meeting of representatives of the Municipal Planning and Development Council (MPDC), the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) and the Rural Health Unit in order to discuss about the setting up of temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMF) and the installation of handwashing facilities.
At present, Ms. Lahaylahay said that Tabuelan has no TTMF and its COVID-19 cases are placed in home quarantine following the DOH protocols on home quarantine. Isolation facilities which are day care centers are for Locally Stranded Individuals (LSIs) and patients discharged from the hospitals.
