Mandaue’s isolation facilities utilization rate rises to 70-90 percent

FILE PHOTO: Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (greenish brown) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (pink), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample.  /Handout via REUTERS.

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Mandaue City’s isolation facilities utilization rate is now at 70 to 90 percent.

The city has two isolation facilities namely the Mandaue City Isolation Center (MCCI) located at the old North Bus Terminal in barangay Subangdaku that could only accommodate 63 COVID-19 patients and the Norkis Park in barangay Looc that has a 60-bed capacity but could be extended to 90 using portable beds, said Dr. Ligaya Lakambini Dargantes, head of the patient care and management team of Mandaue City’s Emergency Operations Center and deputy chief of the Vaccine Operation Center.

The MCCI serves for COVID patients who are asymptomatic or those who only manifested mild symptoms of the virus while the Norkis Park serves for COVID patients with comorbidities.

Dargantes said that there were also patients admitted at the city’s quarantine facility at the Mandaue City Comprehensive National High School Annex Campus (MCCNHS) in barangay Looc beside the Norkis Park.

Dargantes said that the MCCNHS was used to quarantine close contacts waiting for the release of their swab results.

Dargantes said that they have also seen a plateau in the city’s number of cases.

According to data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas, Mandaue has 2,005 active cases of COVID-19, after it recorded 129 new cases last night, August 24, 2021.

Dargantes said that she could not say that the plateau of the number of cases is a good sign as they were still monitoring the city’s health care system and the city’s hospital and isolation units.   /rcg