TO PROVIDE an additional layer of protection for health care workers, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) deployed a total of six contactless specimen collection booths (SCBs) in Metro Cebu last week.

These SCBs were delivered and installed in four medical centers under the management of the Department of Health-Central Visayas (DOH 7).

The identified recipients were Eversley Child Sanitarium and Memorial Hospital, Talisay City District Hospital, St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital and DOH 7 Center for Health Development. These centers received one SCB unit each, while the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center received two SCB units.

The SCBs were jointly funded by DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) and the DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and was fabricated by DOST-PCIEERD’s Startup Grant awardee Futuristic Aviation and Maritime Enterprise Inc. (Fame).

Inspired by the phone booth-style coronavirus testing facilities in other Asian countries, the testing booth concept aims to improve the testing capacity of testing centers and hospitals without direct contact between the patient and the health worker.

Fame’s SCBs are compact with good ventilation, easy to mobilize, can remotely monitor the patient’s temperature and provides a good protective barrier between the frontliner and the suspected Covid-19 patient. (WBS)