Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim donated his salary for eight months to buy 1,000 units of COVID-19 rapid anti-body test kits (RATKs).
“The test kits, which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, are sold commercially at about P1,000 each, costing Mayor Lim about P1 million, the equivalent of his salary for eight months,” Lim said in a statement.
The Mayor said he that even though RATKs are not confirmatory, the test kits would aid local officials make more “strategic” decisions to prevent the spread of the pandemic in their city.
“According to the DOH, the RATK can only detect the presence of anti-bodies produced by an individual to fight the virus and can only be used as an ‘adjunct tool’ after a person under investigation (PUI) has completed his or her 14-day quarantine, asymptomatic and discharged from a health facility,” Lim said.
“The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests, which detect the actual presence of the virus, is still the ‘gold standard’ in testing for COVID-19,” he added.
As of this writing, Dagupan City has six confirmed cases of COVID-19, one fatality, and zero recoveries. The city also has 49 persons under investigation.
Mayor Brian Lim instructed the Dagupan city’s COVID-19 focal person to use the test kits in compliance with the health department’s protocols.
Lim is one of the government officials who donated their salaries to gather funds for the country’s COVID-19 response.
Also read: Duterte to sell government assets when ‘end game’ comes
Government officials, workers donating salaries to fight pandemic
President Rodrigo Duterte donated his whole month’s salary while most of his cabinet members gave portions of their income.
The assistant secretaries of the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson also volunteered to give at least 10 percent of their April salary. They also pledged parts of their wages in the following months to support groups at the front line of the crisis.
Earlier, around 200 lawmakers from the House of Representatives pledged to donate their full May salaries.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. also promised to donate 75 percent of his monthly income to “no work no pay” personnels of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
All Filipino soldiers will also donate a portion of their May 2020 salaries to fund the country’s fight against the virus.