Doing good: More helping hands

The government says that the best thing a civilian or non-frontliner can do to fight COVID-19 is to stay at home and wash your hands, but as the quarantine continues, there are those who feel that they can help the fight even from the sidelines. Here are more organizations who are supporting our frontliners.

LANDERS SUPERSTORE

Supermarket chain Landers, alongside Popeyes, Kuya J, 8990 Holdings Inc., Isla Sugbu Seafood City, and Majestic Restaurant, distributed 595 boxes of Landers Central pizza, 315 buckets of Popeyes Chicken, and 46 bags of groceries containing essential items like toiletries and snacks to 34 hospitals and six army checkpoints.

“Each box of pizza and bag of groceries contain heartfelt messages of thanks and encouragement from the staff and members of Landers Superstore,” a company statement read.

Among those that received donations are the Philippine General Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, Asian Hospital and Medical Center, The Medical City, St. Luke’s Medical Center QC and BGC, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, and East Avenue Medical Center, along with other hospitals in Cebu and Laguna.

Army checkpoints in Alabang and Susana Heights, among others, also received donations.

“The project aims to reach out to more hospitals and checkpoints in the next few days as we reach the critical stages of the enhanced community quarantine,” the company said.

ALLIANZ-PNB LIFE

Similarly, insurance company Allianz-PNB Life provided meals for the Lung Center of the Philippines and the company said in a statement that it will continue to do so for three more weeks.

“We are grateful for the dedication of our doctors, nurses, and service staff during these challenging times. We salute them for their hard work,” Alexander Grenz, Allianz-PNB Life CEO, said in a statement.

“The meals we are offering is Allianz’s small way of showing our gratitude. This initiative was also made possible with our partnership with Mr. Andreas Meneghetti, Managing Director of Boehringer Ingelheim Business Services Philippines, and our caterer, Roje Charesse Ortega of DJLH Lechon House,” he added.

THE ORIENTAL HOTELS AND RESORTS

Filipino hotel chain The Oriental Hotels and Resorts announced that it is offering free accommodations to medical frontliners. The group has hotels in Albay, Bataan, and Leyte.

“We have opened up all our hotels for free to all working medical frontliners, we have to protect them because they are our first line of defense. I hope other hotel owners will follow suit, the sooner we get all our acts together, the earlier this will all end and the sooner we can all get back to normalcy,” The Oriental Hotels and Resorts Group Chairman Wilbert Lee said in a statement.

DLSU ENGINEERING

Faculty members of De La Salle University’s (DLSU) Gokongwei College of Engineering are developing face shields for hospitals and the Philippine National Police using 3D printing.

The university’s program is a response to the urgent request of De La Salle University Medical Center, Philippine General Hospital (PGH), and the PNP Explosive Ordnance Device/K9 (EOD/K9) Group for Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).

The team’s face shield is based on universal specifications prescribed by medical practitioners, and the design is available online.

Currently, the program has distributed 50 face shields for the DLSU Medical Center and 50 for PGH, and have also started giving out face shields for the PNP.

SECURITY BANK

Security Bank donated three negative pressure ambulances to the Philippine Red Cross to be used to transport suspected COVID-19 cases from their homes to medical facilities. The donation is said to be worth P11.4 million.

Negative pressure ambulances serve high-risk patients to protect patients and paramedics from cross-contaminating one another. To reduce the risk of cross-infection, the vehicles are equipped with tools to lower air pressure and disinfect and filter the air.