BAGUIO CITY April 23 – The local government is ready to accommodate the increasing number of individuals being recommended to undergo the prescribed 14-day quarantine period because of their status as probable or suspect Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the city.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong expressed the local government’s gratitude to concerned government agencies and the private sector for allowing their facilities to be used as temporary isolation facilities for probable or suspected COVID-19 cases to prevent the rapid spread of the deadly virus that might affect the proposed recovery programs of the city in the coming months.
Among the operational isolation facilities in the city include the 28-room Lindi Hotel for probable COVID patients, the former Sto. Niño Hospital which will serve as a reserved isolation facility and an exclusive dialysis center for COVID-19 patients, a 5-storey building along Marcos Highway, Tuba, Benguet, the Baguio Teachers Camp serving as a quarantine area for returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and the Baguio City High School that will serve as quarantine area for returning stranded students and workers and construction workers from the lowlands wanting to work in construction sites in the city.
He disclosed that the established isolation facilities are in addition to the isolation rooms that had been identified by the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), the St. Louis University (SLU) Sacred Heart Hospital, the Notre Dame Hospital and the Pines City Doctors Hospital.
The local chief executive claimed that in the case of the operation of the Baguio Teachers Camp as a quarantine area for returning OFWs and stranded students, the expenses that will be incurred will be equitably divided among Baguio City, Benguet, Mountain Province and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) considering that aside from the OFWs, those that will be quarantined will be the drivers who fetched the workers from the airport.
According to him, the education department and the administration of the Baguio City High School were quick to decide in allowing the Baguio Teachers Camp and the biggest secondary school in the city as temporary quarantine areas even if the local government was not able to complete the pertinent documents being required for the said purpose considering that the need for such facilities is urgent and concerns the overall health and safety of the people.
However, he explained that one of the problems that might be encountered by the city is the influx of probable or suspected COVID patients from other parts of Northern Luzon because BGHMC has been designated as an independent COVID testing center north of Manila for them to have their confirmatory tests that might derail the gains of the city in keeping the number of COVID cases at a very minimal number.
Earlier, the health department accredited the BGHMC as one of its independent testing centers outside Metro Manila to ensure the timely release of confirmatory test results from the different hospitals in Northern Luzon on whether or not those that were subjected to initial screening have contracted the deadly virus to facilitate the immediate conduct of contact tracing that will cause the isolation of their close contacts.
By Dexter A. See
