The Iloilo City Government, through its Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, has officially declared an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) during Monday’s emergency meeting, March 25, 2024.
FREE SWAB TEST. Iloilo City will offer free swab tests for students when required for their face-to-face classes. Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas on Monday (April 18, 2022) said schools only need to send their letter request to the office of the city mayor to avail of the free swab test. (PNA file photo courtesy of Arnold Almacen/City Mayor's Office) ILOILO CITY - The city government here is offering free reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests to students who will be required to present a negative result when going back to their school. "Any school that requests for a free RT-PCR test we are giving them for free, at the same time only a few of our residents are submitting to the test," Mayor Jerry Trenas said in a press conference on Monday. Universities and colleges should submit a letter request with the names of the students who will undergo the swab test to the office of the city mayor. A duly appointed representative from the school may coordin
STILL IN EFFECT. The negative swab test requirement for returning residents coming from outside of Western Visayas is still in effect in Iloilo. Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. in his press conference on Thursday (Feb. 10, 2022) says the province may transition to different protocols in the coming days.(Photo screengrab from Balita Halin sa Kapitolyo FB live streaming) ILOILO CITY - The Iloilo provincial government will keep its negative swab test result taken 72 hours before travel as a requirement for returning residents coming from outside of Western Visayas. In his regular press conference on Thursday, Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. said the province may transition to different travel protocols but "we are not sure of that yet". "What we are doing actually is just reducing the risk as much as we can. We want the airport and the airplane to be a safer place for our returning residents," he said. Travelers from Manila (flight) or those that came from all
The facility also stores provisions of the City Health Office, including PPEs, face masks, and other in-kind COVID-19-related supplies donated to the city government
EXPANSION. The Iloilo City government is eyeing to expand the services of its molecular laboratory based in Barangay San Pedro in Molo district to already include genome sequencing. Currently, it can perform up to 800 tests a day with a 24-hour turnaround time.(PNA photo courtesy of Arnold Almacen/City Mayor's Office) ILOILO CITY - The city government here is eyeing to expand the services of its molecular laboratory to already include the conduct of genome sequencing. Chiqui Blancaflor, head of the Uswag Iloilo City Molecular Laboratory based in Barangay San Pedro in Molo district, said that they still have to capacitate the laboratory for genome sequencing that will take some time, undergo training, and purchase the needed equipment. "It will take some time but we are hoping to have it done before the end of the year," she said in an interview Wednesday. Currently, tests for genome sequencing are being sent to the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) in Manila. The city govern