BACOLOD City – Another isolation facility for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is being constructed in Barangay Alijis.
A total of 32 isolation rooms will be available once the second project of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is completed, according to Mayor Evelio Leonardia.
“Even if we may have flattened the curve of infections in the past months, there is no telling when a surge of new cases may come again. These facilities have to be ready,” the mayor said.
Similar to the first facility inaugurated in October last year, the latest project has two sets of 16 rooms, or a total of 32 rooms, situated adjacent to the first 32-room structure.
The rooms are furnished with individual air-conditioners and comfort rooms, a nurse’s station, a utility room, separate medical staff quarters with comfort rooms for male and female, sanitation area, water tanks, and stand-by generator.
Once completed, Bacolod will already have two isolation facilities with a total of 64 rooms built by DPWH in the amount of P50 million.
“This will go a long way towards the care of mild to moderate cases and allow our hospitals to admit more of the severe cases that truly need intensive medical attention,” Leonardia said.
Meanwhile, the city’s Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF) reminded Bacolodnons on Thursday to seek immediate medical attention once they have symptoms of COVID-19.
Early detection is an important step in curbing the spread of infection by isolating the positive patient throughout the incubation period of the virus, it said in a statement.
The EOC-TF said the Bacolod Respiratory Outpatient Center offers both free consultation and swab test for those who have the symptoms.
The public need not be afraid or hesitant in seeking consultation since not everyone who has symptoms test positive for COVID-19, it added.
Data showed that only 10 out of 170 persons swabbed at the BRO Center from Jan. 18 to 31 turned out positive, or an equivalent of 5.88 percent.
Also, the EOC-TF recorded only a 1.76-percent positivity rate or eight positive cases out of 455 individuals tested as of Jan. 31.
The Department of Health in Western Visayas case bulletin on Feb. 3 showed Bacolod logging 5,766 total cases, of which 5,478 already recovered. It has 104 active cases, and 184 deaths. (With a report from PNA/PN)
