LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government is setting its sight on the use of some public schools in the municipality as additional quarantine and isolation facilities following the recorded significant increase in the daily Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases over the past several days uncovered through the ongoing aggressive contact tracing.
Mayor Romeo k. Salda stated it might take some time for the town’s 45-bed isolation center in Longlong to be completed thus the municipal government will rely on the possible use of feasible school buildings to accommodate the increasing number of residents contracting the deadly virus and who are mandated to undergo the facility-based isolation.
He disclosed that there are already some identified public schools localities that are deemed as feasible quarantine and isolation facilities and appropriate coordination is being done with the education department to seek permission from the agency to allow these schools as temporary treatment and monitoring facilities to augment the town’s existing isolation centers.
The municipal chief executive admitted that the existing isolation facilities are now nearing full capacity because of the recorded increase in daily COVID-19 cases and it is important to expand the capacity of the isolation facilities by tapping available schools.
According to him, the municipal government will also renew its contract with a private language school in the municipality for the continued use of some of its buildings as isolation facilities.
Mayor Salda stipulated that the existing health and isolation facilities cannot be overwhelmed as much as possible, thus the need to have beds always available for those who test positive of the virus.
He revealed that municipal officials and concerned personnel of the different offices are now coordinating with the education department in the identification of schools in strategic areas that could be used as quarantine and isolation facilities to augment the existing temporary treatment and monitoring facilities.
Earlier, the municipal inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases adopted a policy that positive COVID-19 patients should be required to undergo the facility-based isolation to avoid the prevalent household transmission of the virus that had been happening to contain the rapid spread of the deadly virus.
The mayor urged residents to continue adhering to the minimum public health standards to prevent them from contracting the virus and for those persons that are qualified to be vaccinated to avail of the vaccines as part of the realization of population protection and eventual herd immunity. By HENT
