AN OFFICIAL of the Department of Health (DOH)-Northern Mindanao is asking owners of laboratories and damaged ventilators to give medical supplies and equipment to DOH to be used in hospitals that cater patients with suspected coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

DOH-Northern Mindanao Director Dr. Adriano Suba-an urged owners of laboratories with equipment to volunteer or give them to the DOH.

He said the equipment shall be assessed according to DOH regulatory requirements, if they can be used in testing the Covid-19 specimen.

Suba-an also appealed to owners of damaged ventilators to submit a list and turn it over to them for possible repair of the equipment and use in hospitals that treat patients with severe acute respiratory illness and critically ill patients under investigation (PUIs).

He said the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has offered to repair the damaged ventilators.

Suba-an also requested owners of hotels, motels, resorts, lodging houses to signify their intent to DOH if they want their establishments to be used as isolation units of PUIs and PUMs, including repatriated Filipino workers who must undergo a 14-day quarantine.

"We need the support of everyone. And I am knocking on your doors," Suba-an said in a teleconference on Friday, April 3.

"We will face the challenges head on knowing that at the end of this, a rainbow will appear in the clouds proverbially signifying our collective triumph over this Covid-19 adversity. But we are not yet there, in fact our battle against Covid-19 in Northern Mindanao has just began," he added.