Valenzuela opens P15 million isolation facility

MANILA, Philippines — The Valenzuela government opened another quarantine facility with a 44-room capacity in Barangay Arkong Bato on Wednesday.

The P15.23-million quarantine center at the Arkong Bato National High School is the latest in the 23 isolation facilities built by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to house patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms.

The facility, composed of 12 shipping containers, has 44 air-conditioned rooms, two nurses’ stations, a radiology room and an X-ray room, Mayor Rex Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian said the city is nearing its full occupancy rate for COVID-19 at 90 percent.

He said Valenzuela would soon have its own molecular laboratory, which went through a proficiency test yesterday.

The molecular laboratory, equipped with a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction machine and an Abbott Architect serology antibody machine that detects both igG and igM antibodies, will ramp up the city’s targeted mass testing.

Isolation facilities are being built in the city because of the “no home quarantine” protocol, Gatchalian said.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) received a 54-bed capacity emergency quarantine facility from the DPWH.

AFP chief Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay and DPWH Secretary Mark Villar led the turnover of the facility, which will augment existing healthcare facilities at Camp Aguinaldo.