While regular activities have been put on hold in Manila and Marawi, MSF is conducting community education sessions on COVID-19 in both locations.
In San Lazaro hospital in Manila, MSF staff are providing support to the COVID-19 treatment ward and the hospital laboratory. The team saw a steady increase of COVID-19 patients in the first half of July, and has been supporting the ward through human resources, donations of personal protective equipment, biomedical equipment, and medication. We continue to support our partner organisation Likhaan through health promotion work in the slum areas of Manila. In June we began supporting health teams in charge of contact tracing and COVID-19 prevention activities within the local community. We are also providing infection prevention and control support in three health facilities caring for COVID-19 patients.
In Marawi, we are continuing our mobile information drive to pass COVID-19 health promotion messages to vulnerable populations. Following the end of the community quarantine, our teams are back working in the three clinics which were previously closed by the City Health Office during lockdown. We have launched a project to support the local medical teams responsible for contact tracing, and have expanded community information sessions around COVID-19 within two newly-created community quarantine facilities.