RAZON-LED Bloomberry Cultural Foundation, Inc. (BCFI) has teamed up with Ayala Healthcare Holdings, Inc. (AC Health) to support a Makati-based testing center to increase the country’s testing capacity.
In a statement Monday, BCFI said it had partnered with AC Health in donating testing machines to the Tropical Disease Foundations which could conduct 200 confirmatory coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests daily.
“We are happy to partner with AC Health and (Tropical Disease Foundation) and in our own way contribute to the Department of Health’s and the Inter-agency Task Force’s Project T3 (Test, Trace, Treat), which has proven effective in curbing the pandemic,” BCFI President Donato C. Almeda said in the statement.
BCFI noted Tropical Disease Foundation is an accredited testing laboratory by the Department of Health and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, making it an ally in the country’s fight against COVID-19.
The Health department has been targeting to conduct 30,000 tests daily by the end of May by boosting the number of testing facilities. However, it said last week that the number of actual tests conducted was at 10,000 every day.
Total COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached 21,895 as of June 7, where 555 are newly reported. Of this total, 16,362 are active cases, 4,530 are recoveries, and 1,003 are dead.
Aside from its partnership with AC Health and Tropical Disease Foundation, BCFI has earlier supported the government through the retrofitting of a unit at the Philippine General Hospital to be a COVID-19 designated treatment facility.
It also continues to provide medical supplies and personal protective equipment to hospitals in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the listed firm behind BCFI, posted a 38% drop in net income to P1.4 billion in the first quarter due to the suspension of its gaming operations.
Shares in Bloomberry at the stock exchange gained 44 centavos or 6.19% to close at P7.55 each on Monday. — Denise A. Valdez
