THE Department of Health (DOH) is eyeing the Quezon Institute and the Philippine Red Cross to provide the community quarantine facilities for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients, an official said on Wednesday, as local governments raced to set up their respective zones and several hospitals declared they had reached maximum capacity for handling cases.
Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the move aims to decongest hospitals and to be able to isolate the mild from severe coronavirus patients.
She said several identified containment areas have been listed in some local government units (LGUs) aside from the 125 evacuation centers of the Department of Public Works and Highways across the country. “I hope that other LGUs in other regions could look for their own isolation areas,” Vergeire said.
Rizal Memorial
Relatedly, the DOH was urged to consider using the sprawling Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila as “temporary quarantine” and clearing facility to accomodate the rising number of Covid-19 patients and while practically all sports activities have been suspended here and abroad
Senator Nancy Binay said local
government units outside Metro Manila could also convert their sports centers
and hotels as “clearing facilities” for their constituents suspected to be
afflicted with the deadly virus.
Binay pointed out that the huge sports facility in Manila could be seriously
considered as “one of the better options” to decongest hospitals that already
exceeded their allowable bed capacities with the still rising number of
suspected Covid patients.
“While waiting for test results and as long as strict protocols are followed and biosecurity precautions are in place, I believe sports complexes like the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila can be an option than having PUIs [persons under investigation] sent back to their homes,” she added.
Binay noted the sports complex includes the 8,000-seat capacity Rizal Memorial Coliseum, dormitories, an open-air track, baseball and football fields, tennis courts and other indoor sports facilities.
“We do not know how long this crisis will last,” the senator said, recalling projections by the DOH that “in 3 to 4 months the PUIs may peak to thousands based on estimates and projections.”
If no interventions are done to decongest hospitals and provide alternative half-way centers, “we would have worsened the situation,” Binay said, adding that “it is for the best interest that there should be interventions made to isolate PUIs from the rest of the population.”
Makati
Makati Mayor Abigail Binay announced that the Makati Friendship Suites in Barangay Cembo is now ready to serve as an isolation facility for persons under investigation (PUIs) or those with symptoms of Covid-19.
Binay said three buildings, which used to be a hotel, have been converted into isolation areas to tend to patients’ medical needs and to prevent the local transmission of Covid-19.
She said doctors and nurses from the Ospital ng Makati (OsMak) will be in charge of monitoring the patients at the Friendship Suites.
City Hall also formed an Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Disease (EREID) team composed of first responders from the Makati Health Department, sanitation workers from the Department of Environmental Services, and members of the Makati Police Department for patient management, disinfection, and security.
Medical equipment, including x-ray machines, defibrillators, and cardiac monitors, were set up in the isolation facility.
Meanwhile, barangay health centers have also put up their own isolation areas for those with Covid-19 symptoms.
San Juan
Mayor Francis Zamora said thay they put up a 16-bed capacity Covid-19 isolation zone in San Juan Medical Center.
“And we call it Charlie Ward. At this time we are about to finish the 26-bed Covid Overflow Ward, 11 beds for female and 15 beds for males. All in all we have 42 beds for PUIs that need to be hospitalized,” Zamora said noting that not all PUIs are for admission in the hospital, some are for home or self quarantine.
He said they are also about to establish a Covid-19 Overflow Building “in one of the new public school buildings that we have. It can house a minimum of 90 beds. This is in cooperation with the Xavier School community.”
Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco, Butch Fernandez