BACOLOD City – The city government here will open more isolation facilities as part of its proactive response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF) is preparing to have enough accommodation for COVID-19 patients once the Department of Education (DepEd) decides to use its school buildings, according to City Administrator Em Ang.
“We have started talking about it in the EOC in the event 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 said that as long as we don’t have vaccines yet, there will be no face-to-face classes,” she said.
Nevertheless, Ang said the city should prepare in case the school buildings need to be vacated.
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 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./PN
