ISOLATION FACILITY. The entrance to one of the two isolation buildings in Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City built by the Department of Public and Works and Highways. The Bacolod City government on Thursday (Nov. 26, 2020) said it is preparing to have enough accommodations for coronavirus disease 2019 patients once the Department of Education decides to use its school buildings. (File photo courtesy of Bacolod City PIO)
BACOLOD CITY – The city government here will open more isolation facilities as part of its proactive response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis.
City Administrator Em Ang said on Thursday the Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF) is preparing for the city to have enough accommodations for patients once the Department of Education (DepEd) decides to use its school buildings.
“We have started talking about it in the EOC in the event that the DepEd will take back the schools by December for the face-to-face instruction next year. Although I doubt it since we have no vaccines yet. The President (Rodrigo Duterte) himself made the announcement that as long as we don’t have vaccines yet, there will be no face-to-face classes,” she said.
Nevertheless, Ang said that in case the school buildings need to be vacated, the city should already be prepared.
At present, the city government is utilizing several school buildings as isolation facilities for confirmed cases, including Andres Bonifacio Elementary School, Corazon Locsin Montelibano Elementary School, Antonio L. Jayme Elementary, Handumanan Elementary School, and South Hills Academy.
Four other schools are also being used as quarantine centers for locally-stranded individuals.
The city also has a 32-room isolation facility in Barangay Alijis built by the Department of Public and Works and Highways (DPWH).
Ang said the DPWH has committed to building another of the same structure and already allocated a budget for the first 16 rooms.
The city’s Regional Evacuation Center in Barangay Vista Alegre will also be converted into a 45-room facility by the DPWH.
The City Engineer’s Office is tasked to set up the Bacolod City Youth Home into an isolation hub with 32 rooms.
Once these facilities are all set in place, Bacolod will have 155 isolation rooms.
“If we go by our present procedure, which is four beds to a room, that’s 155 times four. So we still have a sufficient number of beds in case there is a surge or there is an increase in the number of cases. Of course, we are hoping and praying that the cases will continue to decline,” Ang said.
On Wednesday, 13 new cases were reported. So far, Bacolod has 5,307 confirmed cases, of which 4,878 have already recovered. There are 267 active cases and 162 deaths. (PNA)
