CEBU CITY, Philippines — At least two isolation rooms are readied at the Lapu-Lapu City Hospital as a contingency measure if a patient in the city will test positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The isolation rooms, according to the city’s Public Information Office (PIO), have separate access point from the rest of the hospital and the other patients.
The PIO says Lapu-Lapu Mayor Junard Chan initiated the measure in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of the State of Public Health Emergency.
As of March 9, 2020, there are already 24 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Even without confirmed cases reported in Cebu, the PIO said bigger isolation rooms are being readied in case of local transmission considering that the city hosts the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA).
“Lapu-Lapu City withholds the names of these isolation rooms to avoid unnecessary alarm,” the PIO said in a news release.
The city health and city disaster risk reduction and management offices have already been tasked to conduct an ocular inspection to check if the facilities that the city identified fit to become isolation rooms. /bmjo