I woke up at 5 am because there seems to be a nuclear war on the left side of my throat. The battle has been producing coughing fits and clear phlegm.
I also had a weird dream. My sister was dancing a very suggestive lesbian dance to the old jingle of Ancona Chicken — “Ancona chicken dressed so fine, oh Ancona mine, Ancona chicken dressed so fine, Ancona turn around…” Sorry sis, please blame the nuclear war in my throat for that.
On the upside, my first entry in this Omicron Saga gathered a number of prayers, healing vibes, and well wishes. I am grateful, you guys, but the struggle is real and still going… so we fight on!
Waking up this early helped me discover that the sentient clouds (the fearsome felines) have restored to actually knocking at my door. The scratching is quickly followed by a soft meow. My poor babies, I miss you too!
It’s day 3 actually. I was just feeling very bad yesterday– headache, itchy throat, malaise, and the dreaded fever.
Day 1
Day 1 started with headaches, an itchy throat, and a feeling that I had a fever but my temp was only 36.7. So I put up a brave face and attended the online review classes. No session in the afternoon meant I had a chance to rest. That night I had a restless sleep. I kept waking up because I was audibly groaning.
Day 2
Day 2 was the day I got my fever, only 37.8 but my body felt heavy. I still attended the online review class but I nodded off on occasion because I could not keep it up anymore. I also had no appetite at all.
I tried calling the Pasig health hotlines but only got “The number you have dialed is now unattended.” Well, it was a Sunday…
That second night was still restless and I was still groaning.
Day 3
Day 3: No more fever and the feeling of fever inside was almost gone. I even had an appetite. BUT, my throat was getting worse– the itch is now pain on the left side. At least I know my body is fighting whatever this is. I’m also sneezing; yes, even with the purifier on all the time. Again, I tried the Pasig hotlines, and I got the same recorded message. So I sought help from the ever-helpful Bunny Manera, the village homeowners association president. She’s helping get through to the CESO. Thanks, Bunny!
Apparently, a few friends and my brother are down too. I searched for an affordable antigen test kit and found a cousin that sells them. I’m getting my order tomorrow. Hopefully, it will say it’s negative!!!
So it has been a couple of days since I’ve hugged, cuddled, and harassed the cats. Today, apparently, they have been missing me… or my room, whatever. So they’ve been setting vigil outside my door, trying to come into my room. Tonight, #Pogiandheknowsit, planted himself on the stool we use for my food and stuff from outside. When I opened the door, he looked at me plaintively with those sky blue eyes and meowed his soulful meow. I could only reply with, “Sorry, baby boy. I can’t let you in. I’m sick.” To which he replied with another sad meow, squinting slowly at me. He even reached out a paw towards the small opening I made at the door. Sigh…
Before the pandemic started, the Philippines was seen to have steady economic growth, becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia with an average GDP of 6.3% over the ten years until 2019.
However, the onset of the global health crisis brought the country’s economy into recession, breaking almost three decades of uninterrupted growth. Since the pandemic started, the country’s COVID-19 cases are now over 1.6 million as per the Department of Health (DOH) data.
Major metropolitan areas like Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao, posted the bulk of the COVID-19 cases, and various degrees of community quarantine are implemented to control the spread of the virus.
Helping alleviate challenges
Aligned with their mission and vision of understanding and meeting the real needs of people, Orient Euro Pharma Philippines (OEPP), a company creating innovative, affordable, and high-quality pharmaceutical products for cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory infections, initiated a program to help alleviate the challenges in the country.
Through their Project #Hope or Helping Our Patients Every day, OEP recently donated the much-needed Erdosteine to key government COVID-19 medical facilities.
Erdosteine is a mucolytic indicated for the treatment of acute and chronic bronchitis. It has been the subject of numerous clinical trials, showing to be effective as an add-on treatment to Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients for as long as 12 months.
Adding Erdosteine to the usual treatment therapy of hospitalized patients with COVID-related pneumonia and severe respiratory failure helps improve their overall health-related quality of life, says a study published in Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine 2020 journal.
Orient Euro Pharma visits VMMC
As part of their corporate responsibility program, OEPP’s #HOPE aims to support around 600 post-covid patients from hospitals, such as the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, the Philippine General Hospital Section of Pulmonology, and Quirino Memorial Medical Center.
Orient Euro Pharma visits PGH
“As we create more plans to help the people amid the global health crisis, we hope that this small donation initiative we did can have a huge impact on the patients’ lives. This initiative is also our way of giving back to the community and supporting the Filipino patients afflicted with this deadly disease,” said Sharon Ibay, Product Manager.
Founded in 1982, OEP is a full-scale, multinational pharmaceutical company. Their core competencies not only include pharmaceutical innovation, R&D, manufacturing, sales, and clinical trials but have significantly increased the company’s operational efficiency through vertical integration to provide customers with more complete services.
Two teams from the Philippines, GiveSight and World MAQI, are selected by the United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) as global finalists for the all-virtual Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon held last June 23-29. With 4,300+ participants from 132 countries and territories, the week-long event featured 233 projects to solve challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic using data from the Earth Observing (EO) Dashboard, an interactive data resource giving policymakers and the public a unique tool to probe the impacts of pandemic-related restrictions implemented around the world through the lens of Earth observation satellites.
GiveSight
The Geo-Intelligent Visualization of Earth Systems in Graphical and Historical Timelines (GiveSIGHT) seeks to improve the current EO dashboard by highlighting significant changes of the COVID-19 pandemic through visualizations and guided insight for prospective users. The proposed dashboard is intended to visualize economic proxies through night lights, economic activities, and a lock-down timeline in the Philippines.
The team is led by Gabriel Kristopher “Cricket” Soong, an electrical engineer and emerging technologies consultant, and members include software engineer Mark Barretto and Adamson University computer engineering students Angelica Mhay Salazar, Karl Adrian de Guzman, and Joshua Bungcaras.
Mobility over Air Quality Index
The Mobility over Air Quality Index (MAQI) is derived from the fusion of mobility statistics provided by Google with air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from Earth observations. While the COVID-19 pandemic initially led to decreased mobility and improved air quality, countries around the world have begun to lift their quarantine restrictions, triggering air pollution once again. Through MAQI areas and communities with improved mobility and air quality may be identified and recognized.
The team is composed of space data researchers and hackathon veterans. Data analyst Dominic Vincent “Doc” Ligot and data engineer Mark Neil Pascual led the conceptualization and prototype development, while Michael Lance M. Domagas, a computer science master’s student, reunited with his undergraduate thesis adviser, Arturo “Art” Caronongan III, an assistant professorial lecturer from De La Salle University, to do research and concept validation for MAQI.
Pinoy pride and ingenuity
In 2020, Art Caronongan’s team placed as a global finalist in the NASA Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge for Snail Space, an app giving a “safe space” by providing mental care and comfort during times of social isolation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, Doc’s team developed Advanced Early Dengue Prediction and Exploration Service (Project AEDES) which used Earth observations for data-driven dengue detection and nowcasting, bagging the global award for the best use of data in the prestigious NASA International Space Apps Challenge. Since then, the initiative has garnered more accolades: recognized in 2020 by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) for applying Earth observations towards the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and more recently last May 2021, vetted and approved by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as a Digital Public Good (DPG), putting the Philippines on the map as a DPG pathfinding pilot country.
A team from CirroLytix Research Services, a Philippine-based startup leading the charge in using big data for social impact founded by Doc, developed Global Impact Detection from Emitted Light, Onset of COVID-19, and Nitrogen Dioxide (GIDEON), a data portal that used satellite data and news feeds to measure economic and social impacts of lockdowns and pandemic interventions. In 2020, GIDEON also won the best use of data global award in the NASA Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge.
Cricket Soong and Mark Pascual are also from CirroLytix, and in late 2020 were Space Apps global nominees for Global Hazard Exposure and Resiliency Trends by Earth observation and Analysis Tools (Global HEARTBEAT), an interactive tool providing geo-located information on natural and human hazards surrounding communities within the Philippines and Canada.
Winners of both space hackathons are invited to visit NASA and partner agencies’ facilities but are responsible for covering their own costs. Although travel has been on hold since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, invitations shall resume once travel is deemed safe.
Michael Lance, a lead local organizer of Space Apps, appeals for support in recognizing these global winners and finalists, “Having both led and participated in these hackathons, I can attest to the world-class quality of our local innovators but sadly support for these innovators has been minimal. In the same way, we Filipinos love to cheer our athletes and beauty queens who represent our country, I hope we can find value in supporting our Philippine technologists, who also bring our country pride through their innovation.”
EO dashboard hackathon winners shall be announced in early August 2021.
About EO dashboard hackathon
From June 23- 29, coders, scientists, entrepreneurs, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, technologists, and space enthusiasts from around the world joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for the all-virtual, global Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon.
During this week-long event, participants will create virtual teams and solve one of 10 challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic using data from the Earth Observing Dashboard (the “EO Dashboard” for short). The EO Dashboard is an interactive data resource that gives the public and policymakers a unique tool to probe the short-term and long-term impacts of pandemic-related restrictions implemented around the world through the lens of Earth observation satellites.
During the hackathon, participants will have the opportunity to form virtual teams, interact with experts from NASA, ESA, and JAXA in our chat channels, and submit projects. The winning teams will have the opportunity to incorporate their solutions into the EO Dashboard – making a lasting impact on its long-term legacy!
The EO Dashboard Hackathon celebrates the one-year anniversary of the EO Dashboard’s launch and builds on the success of the Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge.
About CirroLytix
CirroLytix Research Services is a social impact data analytics company. Its mission is to help governments, non-profits, researchers, international and local organizations succeed at addressing collective social problems around the world by harnessing the full power of their data. CirroLytix strives to enable social impact professionals and entities to make a positive data-driven change in the lives they seek to uplift.
About Dominic Vincent “Doc” Ligot
Dominic Vincent “Doc” Ligot is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of CirroLytix Research Services. A former bank risk manager and technology executive turned data scientist and researcher, Ligot has made it his life’s mission to push data-driven innovation for the Philippines and apply data to social development areas such as public health, human rights, education, and fighting disinformation.
A co-founder of the Analytics Association of the Philippines (AAP), and co-developer and active faculty of the Master in Applied Business Analytics (MABA) program of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), Doc envisages the Philippines as a global talent pool for data science and artificial intelligence. According to him, “What we’ve always tried to do, ever since we started our work at CirroLytix, is show that social problems are data problems, and our local talent is up to the task in solving these data problems. Data science and AI are great equalizers, and the disruption brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic is the glaring opportunity for the Philippines to flex its muscles in STEM and we should make a massive effort to push data education and literacy for all.”
Doc is also a key resource of Smarter Philippines through Analytics R&D Training and Adoption (Project SPARTA), a nationwide initiative to train 30,000 Filipinos in Data Science and Analytics funded by the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCIEERD), and implemented by the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), the Analytics Association of the Philippines (AAP), and Coursebank with key partnerships in the national government and local government units.
About Michael Lance M. Domagas
Michael Lance Domagas
He is a freelance software developer, digital marketer, events host, and community leader, organizing events and activities supporting the technology and developer community in the Philippines. He is the lead organizer of NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge and a participant in the EO dashboard hackathon.
To rebuild public trust and attract hotel guests worried about hygiene, social distancing, and safety at the top of their concerns, Hotel Sogo pioneered anti-covid technologies based on research and benchmarking from best practices around the world.
The worldwide pandemic the country is continuously experiencing resulted in millions of lives lost and massive unemployment. The crisis has likewise destroyed the public’s trust whenever their health safety is at stake.
As quarantine policies restricting movements of the population were lifted, the majority of the people, as well as businesses, started to go back to a sense of normalcy, the people’s continuing distrust, affects various businesses, including the hospitality industry.
Contactless Features
no contact key
To regain the public’s trust, at the top of Hotel Sogo’s priority is reducing touch points and intensifying no-contact fixtures. Based on pre-pandemic research carried out by Hotel Sogo, data shows that guests had a minimum of 59 Touch Points (TPs) during a typical hotel stay. Due to new protocols that include contact-less fixtures, TPs have been reduced by 40.7% to achieve a reduction of 66.1% with more advanced technology centered on cellphone use.
At the onset of the pandemic on March 202, Sogo was the first hotel to use UVC (254nm) to fight Covid-19. Taking the cue from hospitals abroad, remote-controlled carts have been deployed for room disinfection. Compartments for utensils, key cards, and cash were also fitted with UVC LEDs but kept away from personnel since 254 nm UVCs, while great for killing viruses that may harm the skin and eyes.
Airconditioners with automatic UVC disinfection
UVC disinfection in all the rooms
Hotel Sogo also expanded UVC disinfection for its room air conditioning units. All room ACs are fitted with specially manufactured UVC LEDs. The UVC light attacks the DNA/DNR of micro-organisms through germicidal irradiation, killing bacteria and viruses and preventing their spread. As it is turned on with the aircon, room air is always sterilized each time it passes through the unit, ensuring the best possible room air quality for our guests.
FAR UVC disinfection was also extended at elevator lobbies. After extensive research, Sogo has acquired and tested the FAR UVC 222 nm lamps that effectively kill viruses while being harmless to humans. Just recently (2020 Q4) produced commercially, it is quite expensive and is sold by only a few manufacturers abroad. Sogo is the first hotel to install these revolutionary excimer lamps in all its elevator lobbies.
In its lobbies and hallways, ventilation ACR Air Change Rate is doubled. The ACR or the number of times the air is replaced for all general spaces is set at ≥ 4 per hour by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers). Sogo is doubling its current ACRs for intensified inflow of covid-free fresh air to accelerate indoor air replacement.
Automatic doors with temperature screening
Automatic thermal scan controlled entry doors were installed in most branches. Guests on their own, get scanned before entry, and if within the safe temperature limit, main doors will open automatically without the need for any contact.
Each branch has an Anti-Covid Team that regularly swabs high touch point surfaces that pass through ATP Fluorescence Detectors to verify microbial presence and effectivity of the new protocols. Anti-microbial coatings were applied on furnishings, fixtures, and touchpoints. Widely used in hospitals and mass transports in China, Hong Kong, and Japan, these Polymer coatings are formed after spraying millions of nano-capsules with contact killing and anti-adhesion features that last for weeks. It effectively kills bacteria and viruses, including H1N1 and Covid. Sogo applies these overall furnishings and touchpoints.
To further sanitize indoor air, Sogo installed air-purifying equipment having several levels of filters: Pre-filter, Activated Carbon, HEPA (H11), with built-in Cold Catalysts, Ion Generators and UVC lights that eliminate allergens and pollutants such as dust, pollen, odor, bacteria, viruses, and even reduces carbon dioxide levels.
K9 Covid Crew
Covid sniffer dogs are being utilized for regular covid screening of employees. Patterned after Dubai and Helsinki Airports where sniffer dogs screen passengers and report a > 94% accuracy rate with dogs detecting the virus days before symptoms even start. Sogo has tied up with a leading K9 company, to have specially-trained Covid sniffer dogs regularly screen its personnel for Covid.
To date, Hotel Sogo continues to invest and rely heavily on research-proven technologies that alter the spread of Covid-19 to assure the safety of its guests. The hotel also continues to accept frontliners and essential workers across all Hotel Sogo branches, and can also accommodate those who prefer a long-term stay for work purposes.
Hotel Sogo is also ramping up its effort in helping the country’s indigent communities through Sogo Cares, the hotel’s Corporate Social Responsibility program. Continuously, Sogo provides basic necessities, such as food and water to indigent communities. Recently, it donated food packs with linens and towels to some fire victims in Manila; essential needs such as bottled waters, linens, pillows, surgical masks, pillowcases, and mattresses to the Philippine General Hospital with the help of AFP and donated in different community-pantries in Bulacan and Quezon City.
Aligned with their mission and vision of understanding and meeting the real needs of people, Orient Euro Pharma Philippines (OEPP), a company creating innovative, affordable, and high-quality pharmaceutical products for cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory infections, initiated a program to help alleviate the challenges in the country.
Two teams from the Philippines, GiveSight and World MAQI, are selected by the United States space agency 
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From June 23- 29, coders, scientists, entrepreneurs, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, technologists, and space enthusiasts from around the world joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for the all-virtual, global 
Dominic Vincent “Doc” Ligot is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of CirroLytix Research Services. A former bank risk manager and technology executive turned data scientist and researcher, Ligot has made it his life’s mission to push data-driven innovation for the Philippines and apply data to social development areas such as public health, human rights, education, and fighting disinformation.
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