Cebu City’s new quarantine facility for COVID-19 patients at the North Reclamation Area is nearing its completion. | Photos grabbed from Mayor Edgardo Labella’s Facebook page
CEBU CITY, Philippines–Cebu City Health Officer Daisy Villa said that it is ideal for the asymptomatic patients of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to be isolated from the community.
However, at this point, there is simply not enough functional quarantine centers or isolation rooms available in the city for these patients.
The Cebu City Medical Center only has five available isolation rooms and in just one day, on April 14, 2020, it was filled with the six recorded cases from Barangay Luz and Barangay Labangon.
When 22 new cases proved positive to the virus the next day, there was nowhere to place the new patients.
Read: Cebu City records 23 new cases of COVID-19
“Mao na ang uban wala lang sa namo kwaa, didto nalang sa sila iquarantine sa ilaha. Ang duha gibilin. Para sad nako, dili need nato kwaon as of now kay nagtapok na sila didto tanan sa Sitio Zapatera,” said Villa.
(That’s why some of the patients have not been transferred, they are quarantined at home. Two were left in Sitio Zapatera. For me, in this scenario, there is no need to get them out because the entire sitio is under lockdown.)
Rising numbers
New found cases are also asymptomatic, or those showing no symptoms.
The Cebu City Health Department (CHD) had to break the Department of Health (DOH) protocol and tested all traced contact for the asymptomatic patients just so they can identify who were infected and how wide the infection has become.
Villa said it was the only way for the city to find out how much the virus has spread.
With the numbers rising, isolation of the patients is a necessity to control the spread of the virus.
There are two quarantine facilities set to be ready soon.
The Bayanihan Quarantine Facility along General Maxilom Avenue Extention, in the old Sacred Heart School, is expected to house at least 100 patients and Mayor Edgardo Labella said in previous statements it will be ready in a week.
The facility in the Block 27, North Reclamation Area (NRA), has also just been put up and the interior is being furnished.
The mayor promised the facility to house at least 130 patients.
Villa said she is looking forward to the availability of the two facilities since it will surely be a huge help. But she thinks there is still an immediate need for more, considering the rising numbers of positive cases. /bmjo