DICT to provide free Wi-Fi to over 30 COVID-19 facilities

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is set to provide free Wi-Fi connection to over 30 COVID-19 monitoring and control centers, including designated quarantine areas and lodging for frontliners, and emergency operations centers.

Through the Free Wi-Fi For All Program, the move aims to enable swift data gathering and exchange in these facilities, as well as give frontliners and patients the opportunity “to communicate with their loved ones to let them know of their situation,” the DICT said in a release on Thursday.

Among these free Wi-Fi-enabled facilities are the Ninoy Aquino Stadium (RMSC) in Malate, Manila; Leyte Provincial Emergency Operations Center in Palo, Leyte; COVID-19 Center for Central Visayas located at the Sacred Heart School–Ateneo de Cebu in Cebu City; and Incident Command Post/Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) against COVID-19 in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte.

Five accredited COVID-19 testing centers nationwide meanwhile already have free Wi-Fi services. These are in the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City, San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City, Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City, and Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo City.

“The DICT is committed to respond to the challenge that this pandemic has brought. Now, more than ever, connecting the Filipino to the Internet, especially those fighting in the frontlines of this war, has become an important task—crucial to aid communication between these facilities and help our medical professionals and other front liners stay connected with their loved ones,” DICT Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II said.

EDV