A Barangay Isolation Center in Cebu City. | Photo Courtesy of Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who is currently in Cebu City to help establish a better contact tracing system, said this city may need to have more isolation centers once the intensified contact tracing has begun.
Read: Baguio City Mayor Magalong in Cebu City to share COVID-19 contact tracing expertise
He said that as contact tracing intensifies, more will be tested, and potentially the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases will increase as well.
This means that there will be more patients needed to be isolated and together with that, the need for more space in the city.
“Eventually if you start doing the test, if you start coming up with the contact tracing, there will be a significant increase in the positive centers. I don’t need to recommend. Mayor Labella already said they will increase the isolation center,” said Magalong.
Mayor Edgardo Labella, for his part, said there are enough beds in the city as there are 19 Barangay Isolation Centers with a 3,000-bed capacity and the NOAH Complex at the South Road Properties (SRP) with a 300-bed capacity.
Read: NOAH Complex to be used as isolation center for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients
Labella said the city is looking into the suggestion of some councilors on transforming the Abellana Sports Complex into an isolation center.
“So far the barangay isolation centers have proven to be effective. If you look at the recovery rate of Cebu City, it is steady at 50 or more percent. But we will look into that and this should be studied by the IATF,” said Labella.
He said the goal of the city is to really decongest the hospitals and reduce the critical utilization rate in these medical facilities by placing asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients in separate quarantine center.
The city also has three quarantine centers for symptomatic patients: two Bayanihan centers, and the Cebu City Quarantine Center.
Labella said the city will add more isolation centers for the expected rise of cases as contact tracing intensifies in the next days. /bmjo