Quarantine facilities help curb transmission of Covid-19: DOH

FILE: The Ninoy Aquino Stadium at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex will be operational as a COVID Health Facility by next week. (Photo: Mark Villar/Facebook)

MANILA – Putting up a community quarantine facility would help curb the transmission of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) from the mildly ill to families or anyone sharing living spaces, a Department of Health (DOH) official said Friday.

“Napaka-importante po ‘yung mga facilities na ganito kasi po mas nako-contain natin ang transmission ng sakit, pangalawa napro-protektahan natin ang mga pamilya nila kung sakaling wala silang appropriate na self-isolation na kuwarto sa kanilang bahay (These facilities are important because we could further contain the transmission of the disease, secondly, we protect the other members of the family in case they don’t have an appropriate self-isolation room in their homes),” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during the Laging Handa briefing.

In Metro Manila, at least two big facilities would start accepting people suspected to be carriers of the disease by the second week of April — the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City and the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Malate, Manila, each having 700 and 600 beds, respectively.

The facilities would house for about two weeks the mildly sick and those without symptoms.

READ: 2 big facilities as quarantine areas operational by April 10

The government has also called for healthcare volunteers to assist in the operations of the quarantine facilities, Vergeire said.

As of April 2, the Philippines has already recorded 2,633 cases of Covid-19, of which 51 have recovered while 107 have died.

Meanwhile, the government is targeting a mass testing for Covid-19 by April 14.

Vergeire said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) would discuss the direction for said move on April 3.

“Ang mass testing po na sinasabi natin ay hindi lahat ng tao sa ating bansa, ito ay magkakaroon ng protocol kung saan, kung sakaling itutuloy nga ito, ‘yong mga may sintomas ang uunahin. Sila ang ite-test at kapag mag-positive ay ilalagay sa community quarantine facility, that is the plan (The mass testing that we are saying does not mean the entire population in the country, we will be having protocols here, and if this pushes through, we will be testing those with symptoms first. Once they test positive, they will be brought to a community quarantine facility),” she said.

Based on the cumulative data of DOH, Vergeire said there are at least 6,002 patients under investigation and around 6,321 persons under monitoring.