BACOLOD City – Three coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) health facilities constructed by the national government through the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) were recently opened here and in Silay City, Negros Occidental.
The projects were the two 32-bed off-site dormitories for medical workers at Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital here, aside from two 16-bed isolation and quarantine facilities in Barangay Alijis.
In rites held at the Alijis site, the symbolic keys to the facilities were turned over by Secretary Vivencio “Vince” Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force for COVID-19, and Director Leah Delfinado of DPWH-Western Visayas to local officials, led by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and Mayor Evelio Leonardia.
Dizon said that when the COVID-19 cases in the city and the province started to surge in August, it was decided that the national government will “move all the resources needed to assist Negros Occidental and Bacolod.”
He said that despite the lower cases now, the people cannot still be complacent “because COVID-19 is still here.”
“These facilities that we inaugurated today in Silay and Bacolod, and the ongoing (construction) in other cities in Negros Occidental are all part of our readiness. That if it happens again, we will be ready and we will be more ready than we were in August,” Dizon said.
“With the support, with the facilities and most importantly, with the hard work of everyone in the province and the cities, and with the support of the national government kaya po nating pababain and we have seen that already. We have seen it in Cebu, we have seen it here in Negros, we have seen it in Metro Manila,” he added.
Leonardia commended the DPWH-6 for the fast completion of the isolation and health facilities, adding that another 32-bed structure is also expected to rise in the same area soon.
Lacson said the provincial government is grateful for the construction of the off-site dormitory inside the provincial hospital.
“It is of utmost importance that we provide decent and proper accommodation to our health front-liners who are working greatly and tirelessly in this fight against COVID-19,” the governor said.
The accommodations in the three facilities are part of the 362 beds provided by the national government, including 253 beds in various parts of the province and 109 beds in the city.
Some 45 cubicles will also be opened at the Regional Evacuation Center in Barangay Vista Alegre here.
In Negros Occidental, similar healthcare facilities will also be constructed on various sites in the cities of San Carlos, Escalante, Cadiz, La Carlota, and Kabankalan and in the municipality of Valladolid. (With a report from PNA/PN)
