To further avert the spread of the novel coronavirus, Senator Cynthia A. Villar has donated rapid test kits to the Dagupan City government in line with its continuing testing program.
Through Villar SIPAG (Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance), the senator gave rapid antigen test kits to Dagupan Mayor Brian Lim.
Earlier, Lim sought the help of Villar, stressing that Dagupan needs “robust support” to navigate the local government’s response to the pandemic.
“We humbly seek your generous assistance to cover the expenses for the targetted mass testing either through funding for RT-PCR tests or rapid test kits, which we will continue to do in the succeeding months, and which wiil be vital in the sustainability of the measures adopted by the city government,” said Lim in a letter to Villar.
Lim said the continuing mass testing program being implemented in Dagupan is the first to be conducted by a local government unit in Pangasinan and in Region 1.
He said beneficiaries of the program in Dagupan are persons from all vulnerable sectors, including but not limited to medical and security frontliners, market vendors and workers and public utility drivers.
Villar has been providing all forms of assistance to government’s initiatives to help our medical frontliners and the public to beat COVID-19.
“We should pool our efforts and resources to help improve the country’s testing capacity and recovery rate from the new coronavirus disease,” she emphasized.
Just recently, the senator has set up portable hand-washing stations in areas where people usually converge such as tricycle terminals, market and crowded communities to provide a way for people to keep clean outside their homes.
She was also instrumental in the opening of the COVID-19 testing laboratory in her hometown in Las Pinas. The Villar family has donated a laboratory freezer, biological refrigerator, autoclave sterilizer and passbox to the facility.
“With this testing center, patients in Las Pinas City will no longer have to travel far and wait long for results,” Villar said.