Aerial shot of a part of a portion of the South Road Properties. CDN Digital drone photo | Raul Constantine Tabanao
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) bloc in Cebu City Council has asked Mayor Edgardo Labella to put up quarantine centers on vacant lots at the South Road Properties (SRP).
In a letter addressed to the mayor, Councilors Nestor Archival, Jessica Resch, Alvin Dizon, Eugenio Gabuya, Franklyn Ong, Lea Japson, Joy Augustus and Raul Alcoseba said the city can use open style tents to hold and contain those patients under investigation (PUIs) for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and persons under monitoring (PUMs).
Archival, in a separate interview with CDN Digital, said the city has to immediately constitute a quarantine center for PUIs to brace for the worse scenarios amid the threat of COVID-19.
Archival said housing PUIs, or those patients that show symptoms of the viral infection and has history of travel or contact with infected places and persons, is ideal at the several hectares of vacant lot in SRP since it is more accessible to doctors and other medical workers.
The sea breeze and warmer temperature in SRP, Archival added, may also be another advantageous factor considering claims that the coronavirus is sensitive to extreme temperatures.
Archival also said PUMs, who are asymptomatic but had history of travel or contact with infected places and persons, should also be held in rooms or tents with fewer other companions, or if possibly alone, in order to minimize their contact with each other.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella inspects the Cebu City Resource Management and Development Center (Cremdec) facility in Barangay Taptap that will serve as quarantine center for persons under monitoring (PUMs) of the Coronavirus Disease 2019. | CDN file photo
“In the quarantine center in Cremdec (in Barangay Taptap), the beds are very close to each other and there is higher chances for the other PUMs to be infected if there is one of them that carries the virus,” Archival said in Cebuano.
The councilors also said it may be time for the mayor to seek the help of the private sector in putting up the quarantine site.
For instance, Archival said the mayor can ask the owner of an “unused” building of a film production school in SRP for the city to temporarily use the building for as part of the quarantine center.
“We should be ready for that. Because the moment that–God forbid–things get worse, where will you put them?” said Archival.
“I hope the mayor will look into that or possibly if he has other places in mind but the main thought is we need a quarantine center that is very near, accessible for volunteers,” Archival said.
This is the second time that the BOPK bloc wrote to the mayor amid the COVID-19 alert. The first one was when they asked the mayor to suspend classes in the city due to the health threat.
Read: BOPK councilors ask Labella to order suspension of classes
Read: Cebu City Council to hold sessions online
Archival said they intended to bring it up to the council but since they will not have sessions until April, they agreed to just send their suggestions directly to the mayor. /bmjo