DepEd: 1,212 schools converted into isolation facilities
MANILA, Philippines — Over a thousand public schools have been turned over as additional isolation facilities as the country wrestles with a surge in COVID-19 cases, education officials said Tuesday.
At a Laging Handa briefing, Secretary Leonor Briones said 1,212 schools and 6,148 classrooms are now being used across the country for isolation, vaccination and various health-related activities.
Other facilities such as school gymnasiums and grounds are also included in this move, she added.
In Metro Manila, Briones said they have allowed too for schools to be used as temporary isolation centers, but on some conditions.
These are: that schools be used only when designated isolation facilites could no longer take in patients, that classrooms meet the DOH's standards, that management would be under local governments, and that efforts are not held simultaneously.
"If a school is turned into a vaccination center, it should no longer be an isolation facility," the education chief said in Filipino. "If there are activities, for example to prepare if schools would be reopened, these should not be mixed."
Briones also explained that classrooms should first be deemed appropriate to be converted as facilities as she admitted that some schools have only a single room for its clinic, or are in short of water supply, far from hospitals or found in crowded places.
By April 11, a DOH tracker showed bed occupancy in the capital region at 65.5%, or 6,308 out of 9,636 beds taken. Isolation beds, particularly, are 68.70% occupied with only 1,574 beds vacant by then.
Only 4 in Metro Manila
Despite this, Undersecretary for Administration Alain Pascua said only four schools in Metro Manila have so far been turned into isolation facilities.
Region 8 or Eastern Visayas, has the most with 422 schools, followed by Bicol Region with 216.
"This is because hospitals in NCR have more capacity along with other facilities, as schools are only low priority to be used," Pascua sought to explain in Filipino.
In colleges and universities, the Commission on Higher Education has said that 17 institutions have offered to become additional vaccination sites. Some six universities were earlier tapped for this.
The Philippine Red Cross last week said that top universities Ateneo de Manila, University of the Philippines and De La Salle have agreed to convert some of their rooms as isolation facilities. It added that it is looking into more partnerships with other schools for the effort.
On Tuesday, health officials in the country reported 8,571 new COVID-19 cases, where nine laboratories were not able to submit data. This pushed the overall count to 884,783, with active cases up by 8,083, or from 157,451 to now at 165,534. — Christian Deiparine
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