Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella inspects the quarantine facility at the North Reclamation Area. The construction is now focused on the interior so the facility is expected to be ready in a few days. | Photo Courtesy of Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City’s awaited quarantine facility at Block 27, North Reclamation Area (NRA) will finally open on Saturday, April 25, 2020.
The facility was promised to be finished in 10 days, but it took almost a month to complete.
Read more: CCMC, Block 27 prepped as quarantine centers for Cebu City
Mayor Edgardo Labella said the delay was due to the need of the city to comply with the Department of Health’s (DOH) requirements for a proper quarantine facility.
He said that the contractor of the quarantine facility was required to strictly follow the protocols and standards set by the DOH in the establishment of this type of facility.
The city boasts that the facility will become one of the biggest and most sophisticated quarantine facility built and owned by a local government in the country to date.
Labella said it would have a 200-bed capacity in negative pressure ventilated rooms, which would block airborne transmission and prevents contaminated air from escaping the facility.
Watch: Inspection of the quarantine facility at Block 27 of the NRA in Cebu City
The facility will also be fully furnished with the necessary hospital equipment in isolating and treating patients with mild to moderate symptoms of the COVID-19.
“The mild and moderate symptomatic cases will be quarantined here. The asymptomatic cases will be placed in the barangay isolation centers. Severe cases will be placed in hospitals,” said the mayor.
The Cebu City government has allocated P100 million for its construction. However, the City was able to save around half of the budget allocated for the facility.
“This is thanks to several donors and well-meaning individuals from the private sector who have extended their help in the spirit of camaraderie and bayanihan during this pandemic,” said the mayor. /dbs