ILOILO City – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will be constructing in Western Visayas dormitories for medical workers and quarantine facilities for asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.
Lea Delfinado, DPWH-6 director, said Tuesday 24 projects will be implemented region-wide with a total budget of P297.5 million which is to be sourced from the agency’s quick response fund.
The projects are modular or container-types with individual rooms, comfort rooms and air-conditioners.
“Each quarantine facility will have 16 rooms. There will only be one occupant per room. Each dormitory, meanwhile, will accommodate 32 persons in total because each room will have a double-deck bed,” she said.
DPWH has agreed with local government units (LGUs) that the latter will be the ones to operate and manage the quarantine facilities.
The medical dormitories, on the other hand, will be managed by hospitals that have been identified by the Department of Health.
The two sets of quarantine facilities that will be built in the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod can accommodate 32 patients each.
The province of Iloilo, meanwhile, will have a modular quarantine facility and a medical laboratory.
DPWH will be constructing 76 cubicles at the Iloilo province’s covered gymnasium for asymptomatic patients and those who will be transferred from hospitals to quarantine facilities.
Provincial hospitals in Aklan, Antique and Capiz, for their part, will each have a medical dormitory.
A makeshift quarantine facility will be established in existing evacuation centers in Guimaras province; Carles, Iloilo; and San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
“We will convert them into a quarantine facility by constructing cubicles,” Delfinado pointed out, adding that they are now in the process of emergency procurement.
They are just waiting for documents from their central office to obligate the projects although the budget is already available.
“We will serve anytime the notice to proceed,” she said.
DPWH secretary Mark Villar wants the projects to be completed in two months, Delfinado added.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the facilities will be kept by DPWH for future use or LGUs may request that the structure will be transferred to them. (With a report from PNA/PN)
