Koronadal City Mayor Eliordo Ogena (Photo courtesy of the city government)
KORONADAL CITY – The city government will open next week a 300-bed isolation facility for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients, increasing its capacity to over 500.
City Mayor Eliordo Ogena said Friday the new isolation center, the fourth in the area and the biggest so far, is being put up at the Koronadal National Comprehensive High School (KNCHS) in Barangay Zone 4.
He said they fast-tracked the conversion of available rooms at the city’s biggest public secondary school in the wake of the continuing spike of Covid-19 cases in the area.
“It will be ready and operational by Monday,” Ogena said in the local government’s radio program “Tingog sang Pagsanyog.”
The city currently has two centralized isolation centers and an alternate facility that have a combined capacity of 262 beds, with 92 reported vacant as of Thursday.
Ogena said 70 of the 123 beds at the Marbel-1 Central Elementary School isolation center, and 96 of the 109 beds at the Koronadal Central Elementary School-1 have been utilized.
He said only four of the 30 beds at the home for the elderly of the Anawim-Koronadal Foundation Inc. were occupied.
The city reported 76 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday night, bringing its active infections to 544, the second-highest among the 49 cities and municipalities in Region 12 (Soccsksargen).
The cumulative cases in the area since last year have reached 2,492, with 49 related deaths and 1,899 recoveries.
The City Health Office also reported 174 pending test results at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center and Dr. Arturo P. Pingoy Medical Center laboratories.
Ogena said he is hoping that the city’s Covid-19 situation will eventually improve, with the implementation of strict community quarantine measures until the end of the month.
The city government earlier placed 22 of its 27 barangays under general community quarantine and the remaining five under modified enhanced community quarantine.
“Hopefully our cases will plateau at the end of this quarantine period,” the mayor said.
Aside from the KNCHS isolation center, he said they are pushing for the completion soon of the PHP10 million temporary treatment and monitoring facility funded by the Department of Health in Barangay Concepcion.
Another facility under the same grant program will commence construction in the coming weeks at the back of the city hall building in Barangay Zone 3.
The mayor added that the local government may later utilize the national government-funded PHP36 million regional evacuation center being built in Barangay San Jose as necessary. (PNA)
