DAVAO CITY – Several local governments in Mindanao were not taking chances and heeded the recommendation of the Department of Health that they prepare more confinement centers for probable patients of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19).
This city has more than 400 rooms in three functioning facilities, with about four more, some of which were inns and motels, but Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said they have to find more to have 1,000 rooms in preparation for the worst scenario of a spike in cases as several local governments downgraded their lockdowns to general community quarantine.
She said residents in many areas would likely misinterpret this downgrading as lifting of the quarantine and thus would be careless with their movement.
The three functioning Covid-19 facilities were support confinement centers for the Southern Philippines Medical Center, the sole designated Covid-19 hospital in the city. She expressed apprehension the SPMC would be likely overwhelmed if a spike in cases would happen. She has since talked with three private hospitals to serve as alternate Covid-19 hospitals in a worst-case setting.
Davao Oriental, which has reported no additional positive case after the three patients checked out as recovered patients, recently inaugurate a new confinement center that could accommodate 14 patients at the same time, with another building being rehabilitated to have additional rooms for probable patients.
Mayor Michelle Nakpil Rabat said the “fight against Covid-19 would most probably last for months or years until such time a vaccine is produced thus they find it appropriate for Mati City to have its own facility to ensure that those possibly infected with the virus would readily be isolated and treated to arrest the spread of the infection”.
The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) also opened on May 1 a Covid-19 Control and Prevention Center in the municipality of Datu Abdullah Sangki in Maguindanao province.
Mayor Datu Pax Mangudadatu said the center was built for a “worst-case scenario”. The center was coordinated established with the town’s Rural Health Unit and the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO)-Maguindanao as to specifications and standard.
It is equipped with patient transport vehicles, hospital beds, oxygen tanks, regulators, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies, triage area, Holy Qur’an and praying materials, Bible for Christian constituents, psycho-social interventions with IPHO.
“Patients, who will undergo quarantine in the said center and whose livelihood will be affected, will receive cash assistance or livelihood program from the local government,” Mangudadatu said.
Barmm’s Health Minister Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan said more Community Isolation Facilities (CIFs) for Covid-19 centers were being built in other provinces. Earlier on April in the province of Lanao del Sur, the Provincial Government, led by Governor Mamintal Alonto Adiong, Jr., converted a 46-housing facility into a community quarantine facility located at Barangay Emi Punud in Marawi City.
Governor Adiong said this initiative is a “preparation in case of a sudden spike in the number of Covid-19 patients in the province.”
Lanao del Sur has recorded the most number of Covid-19 positive cases, with nine out of the 11 total confirmed cases in the entire region.
A Covid-19 isolation facility was being constructed also by the Ministry of Public Works in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, which was estimated to be completed in two weeks. Similar Covid-19 facility construction was also in progress in the municipality of Datu Blah Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
The BARMM is composed of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in central Mindanao, and the southwestern Mindanao island provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. The region has shifted to general community quarantine.
Sarangani province in the Soccsksargen Region, or Region 12, allotted P57 million in a Supplemental Budget No. 2 approved in a special session on April 22 from the Bayanihan Grant to Provinces (BGP).
Governor Steve Chiongbian-Solon said the money would be used to strengthen “isolation medical facility in every municipality. We have to make sure that it is safe. We will also improve our isolation facility in the Sarangani Health Care Facility (SHCF) to avoid crowding the hospitals in General Santos City”.
Sarangani runs six hospitals, five of which are located in Maitum, Kiamba, Maasim, Malungon, and Glan. The other one is the SHCF inside the Capitol compound in Alabel which currently operates as a triage facility.
Solon said the building retrofitted for COVID patients at the Dangerous Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Barangay Kawas would cater to Persons Under Monitoring, now reclassified as suspected Covid-19 persons.
“We will use it as last resort,” the governor said.
Dr. Arvin Alejandro, provincial health officer, said “85 percent of the amount would be utilized for hospital use.”
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