A view inside the first Bayanihan Cebu Field Center in Cebu that will begin operation on April 22. (Photo from OPAV)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The first of two coronavirus disease (COVID-19) field centers in Cebu that will house mild and asymptomatic patients of the disease will already begin full operation and accept patients on Wednesday, April 22, 2020.
The facility, located at the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu satellite school along General Maxilom Avenue, will be operating with a 50-bed capacity under the Department of Health in Central Visayas.
Dubbed as Bayanihan Cebu Field Center – SHS (BCFC-SHS), it is one of the two field centers for COVID-19 that accommodate mild and moderate positive COVID-19 patients.
The BCFC is utilizing a Negative Air Pressure, an isolation technique used in medical facilities, to allow airflow to an isolation room and protect the neighboring communities from contaminants.
“And as for air outflow, all inside air is sucked out through medical-grade Hepa filters that clean all the air coming out. This is actually the reason for the slight delay in construction because the design team worked with the medical team to ensure a totally enclosed air-conditioned facility,” Bayanihan Cebu PH Edmund Liu explained.
Bayanihan Cebu PH is a private sector-led effort on gathering responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Sunday, April 19, Bayanihan Cebu PH and officials from the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, Regional Development Council, DOH-7, and SHS alumni inaugurated the 50-bed BCFC-SHS.
Liu said the facility will be activated on April 22 after they will have conducted a dry run this Tuesday, April 21.
The SHS-ADC, in a memorandum of agreement last March, allowed the Department of Health (DOH) to use their facility for the field center for free from March 19 to December 31, 2020.
Aside from the field center at the SHS Satellite School, the second BCFC that will be located at the International Eucharistic Congress Convention Center IC3 will soon begin construction in partnership with Cebu Archdiocese of Cebu. /rcg