SAN ANTONIO, Nueva Ecija – The municipal government here has started the mass distribution of first aid COVID-19 medicine kits to all households in the town’s 16 barangays.
The program which is a brainchild of Mayor Arvin C. Salonga is believed to be the first of such kind to be launched by any local government unit in the country since the pandemic started last year.
“Nagsimula tayong mag-pamigay ng first aid COVID-19 kits sa ating mga households sa barangay para din sila tulungan at mabigyan ng tamang gabay na huwag mag-panic kapag nakaramdam ng sintomas ng COVID-19,” said Salonga.
These free first aid kits consist of two boxes of 500mg azithromycin (antibiotic) — good for six-days medication; 30 capsules of ascorbic acid (vitamin-C) for 30 days dosage; and 10 tablets of paracetamol.
Also enclosed in the medicine kit is an advisory saying: “Ang mga erythromycin tablet ay hindi nyo muna ito gagamitin, gagamitin lamang ito kapag sinabihan kayong gamitin na ng health worker mula sa rural health unit.”
“At kung sakaling kayo ay makaranas ng ubo at sipon, pananakit ng lalamunan (sore throat), pagtatae, lagnat ng 2-3 araw, pananakit ng katawan, nahihirapan huminga at na-expose sa hinihinalang positive sa COVID-19, you are advised to immediately contact the number of the health worker indicated in the envelope for further instructions before the use of the azithromycin drug,” the advisory further said.
With this program, Salonga said they could readily conduct contact-tracing once a household makes a distress call to the rural health unit (RHU) about an affected family member.
Meanwhile, a retired police general who is a resident here tested positive for COVID-19 on April 11, or three days after he was vaccinated at the RHU here last April 8.
Salonga said this bit of “bad news” was only relayed to him on Wednesday by municipal health officer Dr. Robert Marcelo, who added that the police official’s wife also tested positive of the coronavirus.
As of April 15, a total of 279 individuals have been vaccinated at the RHU as part of the national government’s vaccine rollout program. Of this total, 155 are healthcare frontliners, 55 are senior citizens, 66 have co-morbidities and three are essential workers.
Of the 279, Marcelo said 128 individuals got the Sinovac vaccine while 151 had AztraZeneca.
