Cebu City hopes DepEd will allow extended use of schools as isolation center

At least 400 recovered COVID-19 patients have been released from the isolation centers in Cebu City. | Photo courtesy of Cebu City PIO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government is still hoping for a positive response from the Department of Education (DepEd) on using in the public schools as barangay isolation centers (BICs).

Councilor David Tumulak, the chairperson of the council’s committee on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRMO), said they have not received a formal response on the city’s request for the extended use of the schools.

However, he is positive that the DepEd will eventually allow the city to use public schools because the cases in the city are still rising with over 3,000 total cases logged.

“Mas makalma man gud ang mga residente if ma isolate gyod ang mga positive cases. Naa gyoy stigma gihapon, mao na mas safe if ibutang nato sila sa isolation center,” said Tumulak in an interview with CDN Digital.

(The residents become calmer if the positive patients are isolated. There is still a stigma against COVID patients, so it is safer for the patients to be placed in an isolation center.)

Tumulak said the barangay isolation centers are still fully functional and the city is not planning to vacate the schools soon.

He said there is no definite time specified by the national government for the return of the classes, so the city government is still hopeful it has enough time to continue using the public schools.

“Anyway, ug mohawa nata, ato man nang i-disinfect ang mga public schools,” he said.

(Anyway, once we leave, we will disinfect the public schools.)

There are 19 barangay isolation centers in the city and most of them are already full or half capacity. /bmjo