The University of the Philippines COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team created the web portal http://endcov.ph/ to provide the public with vital information for fighting the coronavirus 2019 or COVID-19 in the country.
The website features a highly detailed map wherein users can zoom in or zoom out to see street or satellite views of the general locations and numbers of COVID-19 cases, hospitals, quarantine checkpoints, and other usable data inputted by UP Resilience Institute (UPRI) staff. The easy-to-use map also has a color-coded “heat map” showing which localized areas have the most (darker areas) and the least (brighter areas) number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Other pages of the website show COVID-19-related policies, advisories, resources, symptoms of the disease, charts, statistical data, and profiles of patients who have been investigated, tested, admitted, and treated in hospitals, including those who have died and those who have recovered from the disease.
The team was created on March 19 through an administrative order as one of the University’s response in support of the ongoing efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, with UP executive vice president, Dr. Teodoro J. Herbosa, and UPRI executive director, Dr. Alfredo Mahar Lagmay, as team leaders. The members of the team are: Director Kristoffer Berse, Research and Creative Work, UPRI; Director Genaro Cuaresma, Institution Building, UPRI; Director Emmanuel Luna, Education, UPRI; Director Rolando Tolentino, Knowledge Sharing, UPRI; Prof. Carlene Pilar-Arceo, College of Science, UP Diliman; Prof. Carlos Primero Gundran, College of Public Health, UP Manila; Prof. Emmanuel Baja, National Institutes of Health and College of Medicine, UP Manila; Prof. Jomar Fajardo Rabajante, College of Arts and Sciences, UPLB; Prof. Diocel Harold Aquino, College of Engineering, UP Diliman; and Prof. Noriel Christopher Tiglao, NCPAG, UP Diliman.
According to the administrative order signed by Dr. Herbosa, members of the team include UPRI directors and experts on public health, medicine, the arts and sciences, engineering, education, governance, and related fields. The document also stated that this team shall be involved in the design and implementation of research and dissemination of findings in areas related to the pandemic. The team may also involve more resource persons and identify other activities as needed.
In a post by Dr. Lagmay on social media, he stated that team members will be adding more information and functions to the website as more information becomes available to them.
The UPRI serves as “a proactive hub of benchmark innovative information vital to the nation’s efforts in climate change mitigation and adaptation.”
As of 4:00 PM of April 1, the Department of Health reported that the total number of cases of COVID-19 in the country is now at 2,311. The DOH also reported the total number of recoveries to 50.
