BAGUIO CITY March 24 – Owners of four hotels in the city allowed the use of their hotel rooms as containment area for persons under investigation (PUIs) and as a temporary lodging area for health workers of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) during the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine until April 15, 2020.
The management of Lindi Hotel along Legarda Road allowed the city government and the health department to use its existing 28 rooms as the city’s centralized containment area for moderate risk PUIs who have been advised to go on 14-day quarantine while the management of the Star Wood Hotel allowed the free use of its hotel rooms as temporary lodging and accommodation area for health workers of the BGHMC who are now working round the clock in handling the increasing number of PUIs and presumptive Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) cases in the city.
Further, the management of 3BU Hostile Baguio along Bonifacio and Gov. Pack road and Beth and Bernie Pagar Building offered their establishments to be temporarily used by health workers having difficulty of travelling from their places to their work so that they will not be exhausted.
Initially, two PUIs were accommodated in the established centralized containment area while the city government and the City Health Services Office are putting the final touches in providing the additional monitoring devices to convert the facility into a semi-hospital set up.
On the other hand, the BGHMC management is currently working out the prioritization of health workers who will use the hotel rooms of the Star Wood Hotel as their temporary lodging and accommodation area while rendering the required services to the hospital during this period of enhanced community quarantine when transportation from their residences to the hospital is not available.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong expressed the city government’s gratitude to the management of Lindi Hotel for allowing its hotel rooms to be used by the city as its centralized containment area for moderate risk PUIs considering the expected influx of patients following the designation of BGHMC as a sub-national testing center for the initial screening of the illness and to the other hotels for providing free accommodations to health workers who are sacrificing their lives to care for the affected patients.
The city chief executive stated the offer of the Lindi Hotel management for the use of their hotel rooms for free greatly contributes to the efforts of the city government to provide added confinement areas aside from the existing hospital rooms in both the private and public hospitals in the city.
Earlier, BGHMC announced it has some 19 available isolation rooms to accommodate high-risk PUIs while awaiting their confirmatory test results from the Manila-based Research for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
On his part, BGHMC medical center chief Dr. Ricardo Ruñez also expressed the management’s sincerest gratitude to the owners of Star Wood hotel for allowing their hotel rooms to be used for free as lodging and accommodation for their health workers allowing them to pace their workers for their round-the-clock duty in the coming weeks for PUIs and presumptive COVID-19 cases in the city.
By Dexter A. See