The Mandaue City Isolation Unit (MCIU) located at the Mandaue City Central School may be reactivated if the city’s COVID-19 cases continue to increase. | CDN Digital file photo
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines – The Mandaue City government will reactivate its two isolation units if the city’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases will continue to rise.
For the past days, the city has logged double-digits of new COVID-19 cases.
Yesterday, February 18, the city recorded 60 new cases of the virus.
The Norkis Park Isolation Unit which was opened just last February 2, 2021, now has 71 COVID-19 patients. The facility can accommodate 79 patients but according to Dr. Ligaya Lakambini Dargantes it could be expanded using portable beds to accommodate up to 90 patients.
She said most of the city’s cases were index cases or new cases of the infection and were not discovered from the city’s contact tracing.
Dargantes said that the city may reactivate the other two isolation units namely the Mandaue City Isolation Unit (MCIU) located at the Mandaue City Central School and the Mandaue City Isolation Center (MCIC) built at the old Cebu North Bus Terminal in barangay Subangdaku if the Norkis Park Isolation Unit will be filled up and the cases still continue to rise.
Since February 2, the MCIU has been used by the city to quarantine first-generation contacts waiting for their swab results and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
The MCIU as of today has 56 patients.
The MCIC on the other hand was used by the city as an expanded swabbing center.
Dargantes said the MCIU can accommodate around 1,000 COVID-19 patients while the MCIC can house at least 60 positive patients.
“The advantage of using MCIU is that duol man gud siya sa among ospital and duol pud siya sa Norkis naa gyud sa Centro unlike if we are going to use the North Bus Terminal naa pa mi problem sa pagconnect sa amoang communication lines.”
Dargantes said even with the rise in COVID-19 cases, the health facilities in Mandaue City are still not at a critical level.
“So far wala pa man pod silay reklamo nga napuno na sila (hospitals) kung napuno na sila it means wala nato na contain sa community level. That is why we are making sure that the protocols at the community level are in place gyud, ” she said.
Based on the data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) on February 18, 2021, the city has 659 active cases. /rcg