CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Quarantine Center now hosts patients of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) after being unused for at least a month since its completion in April 2020.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said there are at least 12 to 14 patients who have been admitted in the quarantine center in the past week.
However, they were relocated for a while because rains have destroyed a portion of the roof of the P100 million worth quarantine center on June 6, 2020.
“Murag naa lay part nga nasudlan sa ulan, pero giayo nato. Okay na. The patients are well taken cared of,” said the mayor.
(There is just a little part that has been infiltrated with rainwater, but it was fixed. It is okay, the patients are well taken care of.)
Refusing admission?
The mayor said he is also calling for a meeting to verify reports that Cebu City hospitals are now refusing to accept patients allegedly for being full.
Pardo Barangay Captain Manolita “Litang” Abarquez, who died in a hospital in Lapu-Lapu City due to severe pneumonia, was refused admission in the hospitals in the city due to alleged “full capacity.”
However, Abarquez was not diagnosed nor proved positive to the coronavirus.
Labella said this is why the city has three quarantine centers, the Bayanihan Centers at the old Sacred Heart School and IEC Pavilion, and the Cebu City Quarantine Center to address the alleged congestion of city hospitals.
“If congested man diay ang hospitals (If the hospitals are really congested), then we urge them that those with mild symptoms, they be transferred in the quarantine centers. We have a negative pressure quarantine center that can accommodate the patients,” said the mayor.
He said the city aims to decongest the hospitals and only let the medical facilities focus on severe cases of the COVID-19 and of other illness, such that of Abarquez.
The mayor said the patients with mild symptoms will be taken care of and treated well in the quarantine centers.
“We have over 600 beds in the quarantine centers. This should be enough. There is no reason for our hospitals to no longer have space for patients,” said the mayor. /rcg