The regional office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) provided Covid-19 Specimen Collection Booths (SCB) in two hospitals in Palawan and one hospital in Oriental Mindoro, in an effort to improve the testing capacity while protecting the welfare of the healthcare workers in hospitals across the MIMAROPA region.
The DOST said in a press release emailed by Athena Colline L. Verdey, DOST-MIMAROPA Regional Office
that three units of SCBs were successfully distributed to the following public hospitals in Palawan and Oriental Mindoro– Ospital ng Palawan (ONP) in Puerto Princesa City, and Coron District Hospital in Palawan, while Oriental Mindoro Provincial Hospital in Oriental Mindoro.
The transport of the units from Manila to Oriental Mindoro and Palawan was made possible through the assistance of the Philippine Coast Guard.
The DOST said that patterned to the telephone booth-style swabbing facilities used in other countries, the SCB was designed and fabricated by DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) Startup Grant Awardee and Palawan International Business Incubator (PITBI) incubatee Future Aviation and Maritime Enterprise, Inc. (FAME). The SCBs were jointly funded by DOST-PCIEERD and DOST – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST- PCHRD).
“To minimize the risks of health workers of contracting the virus from suspected COVID-19 patients, the SCB also known as the “no contact booth” is equipped with clear water-proof acrylic window, semi-disposable untextured nitrile gloves, pressure sensor to prevent outside contamination from getting inside the booth, a FAME-designed temperature scanner that allows temperature to be obtained and recorded in the cloud for easy monitoring of hotpots in areas where the SCB is installed, and caster wheels for easier mobility,” the DOST-MIMAROPA said in a press release.
ONP in Puerto Princesa City, which is the region’s first and only licensed testing center by the Department of Health (DOH) received the SCB, middle of May 2020, while Coron District Hospital received their SCB on the last week of May 2020, to cater to patients residing in the northern part of Palawan.
The DOST said that in case other institutions or private entities would like to fabricate their own SCBs, the design was also made available publicly for free. Designs are disseminated through the DOST-MIMAROPA Regional Office and its Provincial S&T Centers in Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan.