Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas inspects the hotel turned isolation facility in Barangay Lawaan 2. | Photo Courtesy of Mayor Gullas
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Talisay City will open a new isolation center in Barangay Lawaan II with a bed capacity of 60 to accommodate positive cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas posted on his Facebook page his visit to the isolation center, which is owned by a hotel, which is currently unoperational due to the pandemic.
The hotel turned isolation center was accredited by the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) as an isolation center for the city on July 28, 2020.
“Ang lugar gi andam na na sa atong mga doctors. It will be good for 60+ rooms. Gi andam na sad nila asa ang mga green zones and red zones sa facility. There will be nurses on standby 24/7, and we have already set the guidelines and protocols for the facility,” said Gullas.
(The places have already been prepared by the doctors. It will be good for 60 plus rooms. It has been identified where the isolation facilities will be in the green zones and red zones. There will be nurses on standby 24/7, and we have already set the guidelines and protocols for the facility.)
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The mayor is hoping that the city can begin to transfer the positive patients in Barangay Lagtang to this new isolation facility by next week, the first week of August 2020.
As of now, the active cases in the city is only at 110, which is enough for the current number of isolation facilities in the barangays, mostly in government owned buildings.
However, if the cases increase, Gullas said the patients aged 50 years old, postpartum patients, and above and those comorbidities would be prioritized in the new isolation facility.
“During this time we will improve the facilities in the Lagtang facility so it can accommodate more patients in the future as well. This is what we want to do sa city, we want to hope for best, but we have to be prepared for the worst as well,” said Gullas.
The mayor emphasized the necessity of isolation centers in the city as starting tomorrow, August 1, 2020, Cebu City borders would once again open to the rest of the province.
The last time this happened on June 1 to June 15, 2020, the cases in Talisay City rose because of the free movement of workers between the two cities.
The mayor is determined that contact tracing will be intensified in the next days to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“Hopefully we will be more careful and be more vigilant this time around as we try to open the economy back in Cebu,” he said. /dbs