RECENT STUDIES show that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the country’s educational, healthcare, and economic systems. While these pressing issues hamper the government’s response to the pandemic, additional problems and intricacies emerge such as the surge of COVID-19 cases driven by the new variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the country.

The public health crisis became more challenging to overcome in the hands of the national government alone. For this reason, higher educational institutions, including the Loyola Schools (LS), step forward to assist in combating the crisis that goes beyond delivering quality online education. In fact, the LS administration is assisting the local government’s COVID-19 vaccination roll out in Quezon City (QC). Such exertions make it imperative to determine the roles of universities in the national and local response against this global health crisis.

Facing forward

In a press briefing last January 28, QC Mayor Joy Belmonte listed Ateneo de Manila University as one of the 24 inoculation sites for the city’s COVID-19 vaccination program. “At the moment, these sites were approved by DOH. And these are the ones with sure staff and personnel available,” Belmonte says.

“Obviously our campus is huge and so we have facilities that can accommodate the inoculation of activity,” University Physician Dr. Norman Marquez says. Aside from the QC government, Marquez also notes that Ayala Health is interested in utilizing the University as an inoculation site.

Marquez remarks that the inoculation will begin when the AstraZeneca vaccines secured by the QC government are delivered some time in June or July. He also mentioned that the vaccination rollout will be done for about six to eight months with 700 individuals estimated to be vaccinated on campus daily.

Although vaccination efforts will be done within the University, Marquez stated that the inoculation will be administered by the QC government and the LS will only be used as a  vaccination site. “The entire process from the manufacturer, storing, distribution, delivery, and the inoculation will be done by the Quezon City government,” Marquez says.

In terms of the students and LS staff, Marquez says that University President Roberto Yap, SJ is trying to secure vaccines for the community. As of press time, Marquez notes that the University administration will soon be meeting on this to prepare for the specifics. 

In the event that the University secures its own vaccines, Marquez emphasizes that the prioritization set by the government will still be followed. In this case, he notes that frontliners will be the first to receive the vaccine followed by the elderly and the general populace.

Marquez notes that since students are “relatively healthy,” they will not be on the priority list for vaccination. “We would have to follow the prioritization rationale that has been set not just by the Philippine government but by [the] global community,” Marquez shares.

If the government’s vaccination rollout goes well, Marquez believes that the University may soon resume on-site operations. “If there is good coverage of the vaccine, then maybe at best we can do hybrid, which means some classes are still online, maybe a few classes, maybe laboratory classes…will be on campus,” Marquez says. However, he emphasizes that this will depend on the national situation and the success of the national vaccination efforts.

In retrospective view

To date, the University continues to coordinate with the QC government for the preparation regarding the vaccine rollout as one of the contributions for the response against COVID. Months prior to this, the University facilitated relief operations for sectors badly affected by the pandemic through the Ateneo Disaster Response and Management (DReaM) Team, alongside Tanging Yaman Foundation and Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan.

During the early months of community quarantine, Marquez says that the University, through the DReaM Team, sourced personal protective equipment and distributed them to different hospitals and health facilities nationwide.

Marquez also mentions that the Blueplate for Better Learning Feeding Program of the Ateneo Center for Educational Development donated food packs to public school children and their families. The program also benefits displaced farmers from Central Luzon and Mountain Province who were the source of rice and vegetables for this program.

Aside from conducting relief operations, University researchers also devised programs to assist in the national response. Among these innovations is the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler for Early Detection of Diseases (FASSSTER) from the Ateneo Center for Computing Competency and Research (ACCCRe).

FASSSTER is a web application that collates electronic medical records and reports on symptoms to produce a model that will map the clusters of a particular symptom,  visualizing a potential disease emergence in certain areas. Furthermore, it forecasts the spread of a disease and simulates scenarios based on interventions and healthcare capacity to guide local government units in policy making.

FASSSTER Project Lead Dr. Maria Regina E. Estuar says that the program is more than 20 years in the making before it was redesigned for COVID-19 surveillance. “In [the ACCCRe] lab, what we have been doing since 2003 was to develop web and mobile solutions, initially focusing on [private] industry needs. But then we shifted sometime in 2007, we said ‘let’s do research for nation-building.” 

Estuar also mentions that FASSSTER is the official platform of the country for monitoring COVID-19 for over a year now. Since then, the team adjusted the program through adding scenarios on guidelines and stages of the pandemic and strengthening the model with more defined risk classifications and socio-economic data on the recovery phase of the LGUs.

“That’s why the work continues because [partner government agencies] trust us. They know and we promised, and Ateneo promised that we will not leave them until this is over,” Estuar says.

Beyond the confines

In line with Ateneo’s efforts against the pandemic, Estuar believes that educational institutions such as the Ateneo play an important role in the national response to COVID-19. She cites how other members of the Ateneo community, particularly those in the science and medical fields, are continuously aiding in researching and studying the spread of the disease.

“Dr. [Fabian] Dayrit’s team has been studying the efficacy of the [virgin coconut oil] for those who are recovering from COVID-19 or to improve your immune system,” Estuar says.

Both Estuar and Marquez stressed the necessity of collective effort in responding to the pandemic. Additionally, Marquez notes that everyone should be consistently doing their part in mitigating the spread of the disease.

“If [Filipinos are] all confident that everyone is responsible for doing their part then we all know within our community at the very least, we’re keeping everyone safe. Not just ourselves, but everyone,” Marquez says.