BACOLOD City – Local officials here are asking the Department of Education to extend the use of public schools as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quarantine facilities.
Local government units have been allowed to use classrooms as isolation centers, but only until the end of July.
Because of this, Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Councilor Renecito Novero wrote a joint letter to Secretary Carlito Galvez, the government’s COVID-19 response chief implementer.
They appealed to Galvez to intercede with the Department of Education (Deped) to allow the extended use of schools as quarantine facilities, while physical classes are still not allowed.
“We strictly observe the 14-day quarantine regimen and we utilized already the 11 out of 68 public schools under a memorandum of agreement with the DepEd,” read part of their letter.
To date, 263 classrooms in various public schools in the city are utilized as quarantine facilities for returning locally stranded individuals and overseas Filipino workers.
As long as the city has positive cases of COVID-19, schools play an important role in the effort to contain the virus, the two city officials pointed out.
They noted that the city government already spent around P12.325 million for the repair and improvement of these classrooms and installed wall fans, which costs around P1.09 million.
Both Leonardia and Novero assured Galvez that the continued use of the schools as quarantine centers will not hamper the education of the children or the professional development of teachers.
They, however, did not specify the date as to when the local government will be using the schools.
They said for as long as President Rodrigo Duterte has not approved the date of the face-to-face classes, they asked for the temporary use of the classrooms./PN
