The NOAH isolation facility. |contributed photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The New Oasis for Adaptation and a Home (NOAH) complex at the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu City now has 314 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in isolation.
The numbers ballooned in the first weeks of January 2021 when more than 500 new cases were recorded. This was later attributed to the complacency of the public over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The city government is now planning to increase the bed capacity of the isolation center from 400 to at least a hundred more as the city expects more COVID-19 patients in the next few days.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama, the acting mayor of the city, said that he met with department heads on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, to discuss how the city can help the isolation center with the rising cases.
The center is funded both by the city government and donations, which is why the vice mayor is already planning to extend logistical assistance to the center with the rise in cases.
More patients mean more beds, more manpower needed, more medicine and food needed, as well as more resources like medical supplies and personal protective equipment needed.
“We should rally together to help NOAH this time,” said Rama.
He added that the last thing the city needs is for the NOAH complex to be overwhelmed.
The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is already preparing back-ups for the isolation center including the reopening of the Cebu City Quarantine Center (CCQC) for mild to moderate cases of the virus.
Although the health care system such as the hospitals, which the EOC considers as the last line of defense, is still stable, the city government wants to open more isolation centers to avoid overwhelming them.
The symptomatic patients are at 28 percent among the 650 active cases in the city, but most of them are only mild to moderate, a situation best handled by secondary facilities like the CCQC.
The EOC has also prepared three barangay isolation centers in case there will be a need for more bed spaces./rcg