DOST provides ‘no-contact’ specimen collection booths to fight COVID-19

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will provide a “no-contact” COVID-19 Specimen Collection Booths (SCB) to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

DOST-6 turned over the first SCB in Western Visayas to Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital (TLJPH) in Silay City Negros Occidental.

The regional office is set to distribute five more SCB units to hospitals in the region – Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital, Western Visayas Medical Center, Western Visayas Sanitarium, and Don Jose Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital.

These hospitals were identified by the Department of Health Center for Health and Development Region VI (DOH-CHD VI).

The booth aims to test multiple patients without having physical contact with the medical staff.

It maintains a positive pressure inside the booth that comes from the ventilator with a filter to prevent outside contamination.

With the help of the pressure sensor, the health worker is notified of the real-time pressure inside the booth, it also has a small built-in screen that displays the pressure difference inside the booth.

DOST-6 is now conducting the final inspection of the units that arrived in Iloilo City and shall continue with the distribution to the hospitals as soon as the units are ready.

DOST is allocating P20 million for the manufacturing, distribution, and installation of this innovation through its DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and the DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD).

The mass production of the SCBs is DOST’s support to the efforts of the DOH in the conduct mass testing. (Sol Salazar/DOST-6)