Maguindanao health office gets aid from BARMM, foreign donors

 INCREASING CAPABILITY. Dr. Amirel Usman, BARMM health minister, hands over the keys of two land ambulances and refrigerated vaccine transport car from international donor countries to Dr. Elizabeth Samama (right), chief of Maguindanao Integrated Provincial Health Office, during ceremonies held at Maguindanao provincial hospital compound on Monday, February 1, 2021. The MOH-BARMM also handed over a vaccine refrigerator, generator set, solar panels, and emergency hygiene kits (inset) to the provincial health unit. (Photo courtesy of MOH-BARMM) 

COTABATO CITY – The Ministry of Health in the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao (MOH-BARMM) turned over on Monday afternoon, February 1, an ambulance and refrigerated vaccine transport vehicle to the Maguindanao Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) to improve its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) containment initiatives.

Dr. Amirel Usman, acting BARMM health minister, handed over the equipment to Dr. Elizabeth Samama, IPHO-Maguindanao chief, during ceremonies held at the Provincial Hospital compound in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.

The health facilities were part of the assistance provided by three transnational donors: the United Kingdom government, the International Organization on Migration (IOM), and the government of Germany.

Aside from ambulance and cold chain refrigerated transport vehicles, the MOH-BARMM and its partner agencies also turned in a vaccine refrigerator, generator set, solar panels, and emergency hygiene kits, among others.

“To control and suppress spread, we must take the fight to the virus. Active case detection, isolation, testing, and contact tracing can control the virus,” Samama said.

She added that IPHO-Maguindanao has been strengthening surveillance and contact tracing to help national and local authorities rapidly adapt to evolving outbreaks, whether moving from one case to a cluster of cases or from a cluster of cases to no case. (Edwin Fernandez, PNA)