MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Philippines surpassed the 2 million mark for confirmed COVID-19 cases and continues to experience a high infection rate, adding pressure to the already strained healthcare system.
To support healthcare workers in addressing COVID-19, the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), in partnership with the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), has launched Project SHIELD, which aims to protect healthcare workers by bolstering the national COVID-19 response through education and improved hospital infection prevention and control practices.
Under Project SHIELD, ASSIST will capacitate 2,500 healthcare workers as well as medical and nursing students on the latest information on COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) to help them better protect themselves, their co-workers, and their patients. These learning modules were developed by the Watson Institute of Brown University and enhanced by ASSIST to update, localize, and align them with the Department of Health and the World Health Organization policies and recommendations. Hospitals, birthing centers, and allied health facilities like dental, pediatric, diagnostic, and dermatology clinics will also be given access to a self-assessment platform developed by ASSIST to identify gaps in IPC practices and give recommendations for improvement. A wide-scale awareness campaign will support these efforts to provide the public with accurate information on COVID-19 in an effort to curb not just the spread of infection, but also misinformation.
The implementation of Project SHIELD is underway and ASSIST endeavors to seek more impactful partnerships with civil society organizations, national and local government agencies, and Philippine medical organizations.
