MANILA – Taguig City Mayor Lino Cayetano on Monday said the city has utilized government-owned buildings and other facilities to house possible and confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and provide accommodation for some front-line workers.
Cayetano said the city has repurposed sites such as PWD Center; a new building in Katwiran, Ibayo Tipas, Taguig Lakeshore; a building inside the Technological University of the Philippines (TUP) Taguig; and Hagonoy Sports Complex as temporary facilities to house patients under investigation (PUIs) and persons under monitoring (PUMs).
“With this step, we express our resolve to provide better support for those who need medical attention and also for our hardworking front-line workers,” he said in a statement.
He explained that dedicated wards would help the city manage cases in a way that will minimize unnecessary exposure to the virus.
Special accommodations, meanwhile, provide shelter and isolation for workers who may have exposed themselves to the virus in the line of duty.
The PWD Center will receive patients who tested positive for Covid-19 but manifest mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. It will also house staff of the city government deployed to care for admitted cases.
The newly-constructed four-story building in Katwiran, Ibayo Tipas, will admit PUIs and individuals who had close contact with people who tested positive for Covid-19.
The Lakeshore site has modular tents meant for PUMs. It is a quarantine facility for those who had traveled in the last 14 days, including overseas Filipino workers and recovering PUIs.
The building at the TUP campus in Taguig will function as a hostel and admit confirmed Covid-19 cases. A tent hospital extension is set up on the open grounds.
Meanwhile, the Hagonoy Sports Complex will accommodate personnel of the Philippine National Police and Bureau of Fire Protection and other front-line workers who have been implementing the enhanced community quarantine on the ground. With modular tents, the complex is also an isolation area for the frontline workers.
The temporary facilities will provide daily meals, hygiene kits, even slippers and internet connectivity for all patients. They are also air-conditioned and manned by medical professionals round the clock.
The Taguig-Pateros District Hospital (TPDH), meanwhile, will continue to admit Covid 19-related cases and PUIs. These patients will be placed in isolation rooms, Covid-19 wards, intensive care units, and tents.
TPDH is in close coordination to referral hospitals like the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and the Lung Center of the Philippines to refer more severe cases.
The repurposed facilities are a preemptive measure for a “worst-case scenario”.
“TPDH is operational but we have also prepared because we know that in other countries, cases have exceeded the capacity of the healthcare system,” Cayetano stressed.
While data would reveal that eight in 10 cases can recover under home care, the supplementary facilities will allow the city to care for Covid-19 patients, PUIs and even PUMs whose homes are not conducive to healing and risk other members of the household to infections.
A dedicated containment unit will assess cases.
“We need bayanihan. This is an extraordinary situation across the globe. I believe helping others, caring for one another and cooperation are ingrained in our souls as Taguigenos and Filipinos. This will be our most important weapon against Covid-19,” said Cayetano.
Last week, the city government has provided cash assistance worth PHP4,000 to members of the public transport sector who were affected by the enhanced community quarantine.
More than 15,000 members of the city’s tricycle operators and drivers association (TODA), jeepney operators and drivers association (JODA) and pedicab operators and drivers association (PODA) will receive the financial aid from the local government.
Another PHP4,000 will be given to each of them next month.
The financial assistance is expected to cover each family's additional necessities amid the Covid-19 pandemic and is apart from the food packs distributed by the local government to Taguig families.
The aid to the transport sector is just one of the initiatives of the Taguig City government to help its residents during the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine. It has also distributed stay-at-home family food packs and anti-Covid 19 kits to the community.
As of April 1, the local government has distributed stay-at-home family food packs to 104,612 families in Taguig. These food packs contain rice, canned goods, noodles, coffee, cereal drink, and bottled water. A food pack is good for three to four days for a family of five.
Taguig has also distributed 54,904 anti-Covid19 kits to senior citizens, PWDs and other vulnerable sectors in the city.
A kit comes with vitamins good for 30 days, masks, antibacterial soap and instructional materials on proper handwashing, how to disinfect their homes and key information about Covid-19. (PNA)
