For level 2 COVID-19 patients: City improving quarantine site

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City Quarantine Center is closed temporarily to give way to some improvements to accommodate Level 2 COVID-19 patients.

"Atong gisira ug pipila ka adlaw para butangang mga laing equipo. Mamahimo nang Level2, hospital nga level unya ang CCQC,” said Mayor Edgardo Labella.

(We are closing it down for several days so we can install more equipment. The CCQC will eventually become Level 2, hospital level.)

CCQC, a negative pressure building, was designed initially to be a Level 1 facility for COVID-19 cases or for patients with mild to moderate symptoms.

Cebu City Medical Center’s Yvonne Cania said they are targeting to accommodate Level 2 cases within the month.

Aside from additional equipment, Labella said they are also considering of adding more beds to the center to ease the traffic at hospitals, especially that there are patients from the province who are also brought to Cebu City.

“The Province, other parts of the island of Cebu, kay ari man pud dagan gihapon sa Cebu City. Di mahimo nga ang atong rang pangandaman igo ra sa Cebu City. We can’t say no if there are COVID patients from the other islands of Cebu and even gani from other neighboring provinces, maong mag-andam ta,” said Labella.

(There are patients from the province who are brought to Cebu City. We can’t prepare just for Cebu City. We can’t say no if there are COVID patients from the other islands of Cebu and even from neighboring provinces so we have to be prepared.)

Although private hospitals have already increased their bed capacity for COVID-19 cases, Labella said Cebu City should not reach a point that facilities are overwhelmed anew like what happened in Metro Manila.

“Para di ma-overwhelm atong mga hospital. Gani, atong makita ang Manila, overwhelmed sila didto. Kita, we are so prepared, ato mga isolation centers nga 30 to 40 percent ra man gani,”

(So that our hospitals will not be overwhelmed. We’re seeing in Manila that they are already overwhelmed. We here are so prepared; in fact, our isolation centers are only 30 to 40 percent occupied.)

“In my last conversation with hospital administrators, 40 to 50 per cent ra ang ilang occupancy kay nagdugang man sila, but, of course, maayo nang nanubra kay we can never tell,” Labella added.

(In my last conversation with hospital administrators, their occupancy now is only 40 to 50 percent because they added more beds, but, of course, it’s better to have more because we can never tell.)

Hospitals in Cebu City have already experienced being overwhelmed especially when the number of cases spiked in June. With the city getting tagged as the epicenter of the pandemic in the Philippines, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) placed the city back under enhanced community quarantine.

President Rodrigo Duterte also sent Secretary Roy Cimatu to oversee the strict enforcement of quarantine protocols in the city with deployment of more policemen, including members of the Special Action Force (SAF).

It was only on August 1 when Cebu City transitioned back to general community quarantine – its new cases sliding down to just double figures in a day, even recording just 13 cases on August 6.

While CCQC is closed, patients with mild to moderate symptoms may be referred to the two Bayanihan Field Centers managed by the Department of Health (DOH) and while asymptomatic patients can be referred to the NOAH Complex, aside from the Barangay Isolation Centers.

The Bayanihan Field Center I located at the old campus of the Sacred Heart School for Boys in Cebu City is already back in operation after being closed for some time for maintenance.

Aside from the CCQC upgrade, mayor Labella also said that there is also an on-going construction of a Covid-19 dialysis center also around the area aside from that of the one at SM Seaside City which is for non-Covid patients.

The city allocated P100 million to build the CCQC of which P58 million has been used, so far, Labella said.

The City Council has long been asking for a rundown of expenses of the CCQC, but is yet to get an answer from the executive department. — JMO (FREEMAN)