Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said on Friday that the city is eyeing free COVID-19 tests for students who will be attending face-to-face classes.
According to Moreno, the city’s 3 RT-PCR machines and 2 laboratories can handle the demand for swab tests.
“We can offer regularly para magkaroon sila ng peace of mind. We can submit them to swab testing and it can be available for free so as not to add cost to the students,” Moreno said.
The LGU of Manila approved on Wednesday the University of Santo Tomas’ proposal to conduct limited face-to-face classes for their medical and allied health programs.
Moreno said that UST has already laid out protocols for the reopening of classes, including crowd management, reduced occupancy capacity, and random inspection by the local government.
“The nitty-gritty are in place, and all we have to do is to trust the institution. I think they are responsible enough to know all these things,” Moreno said.
He said the city of Manila accepts applications from other schools offering medicine courses, including smaller nursing institutions.
“Malamang sa hindi papayagan namin,” Moreno admitted.
