Taguig launches portal for online classes, other services during quarantine

MANILA, Philippines – Taguig launched on Monday a portal for online sites for its schools and other resources for various sectors during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) still in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a post on the Facebook page of I Love Taguig, the city launched the Taguig Online Resources and Community Hub (TORCH) to run a virtual open campus and to serve as a resource site for various services.

“The portal introduces training for teachers, open campus for professionals, online resource hub for seniors, resource page for businesses to help and prepare them transition post-ECQ and government information portals,” the post explained.

The online portal has five components:

• a cyber laboratory which would help teachers and students to conduct classes online
• a training facility for aspiring entrepreneurs
• a virtual version of the center for the elderly
• an online site for government announcements,
• guide for businesses to transition to a post-ECQ period

These projects center on the idea that physical distancing measures can prevent the spread of the coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19.

“Currently, 4,500 public school teachers and 1,000 private school teachers are under training to conduct classes through Web meetings and self-paced learning tools,” Taguig said.

“With Cyberlab@Home, teachers may conduct at least one class a week on the Web. The study-from-home arrangements would then help decongest schools,”  it added.

Under the program, 68,000 senior citizens in the city can enjoy a subscription to movies online — in place of the free movie passes that they enjoyed before the ECQ.  They are also entitled to telemedicine services where seniors can consult doctors through mobile phones or the internet.

The rest of the city residents can avail of other services like online self-assessment testing for possible coronavirus infection, access web-based channel TaguigTV and I Love Taguig Facebook page, and the website of the Taguig Information Portal and Telemedicine.

As of now, the entire island of Luzon, including Metro Manila, is still under lockdown, which will end on April 30.

As of this writing, Taguig has 221 confirmed COVID-19 patients, 15 of whom have died while 26 have recovered.  The city also has 1,129 patients suspected of carrying the coronavirus.

The Department of Health said that there are now 7,777 patients infected with the coronavirus nationwide, of which 511 have died and 932 have recovered.

Worldwide, over 2.9 million individuals have been infected, while at least 206,502 have died from the disease and over 834,656 have recovered from it.

/atm