The city will push through with the proposed construction and relocation of the Atab district health center to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of health care services to residents living in the city’s southwestern portion.
City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña said the city government took back from the Department of Public Works and Highways its earlier proposal to realign the P20 million for the expansion of the Baguio City Community Isolation Unit following the significant decline in the number of Covid-19 cases that already negated the need for the expansion project.
He said the local government’s earlier request to realign the said funds for the expansion of the city’s isolation unit based at the former Sto. Niño Hospital is still pending with the Office of the Public Works Secretary, which is why city officials deemed it proper to withdraw the proposal and instead pursue the put-up of the new Atab District Health Center, which will be relocated along a portion of Marcos Highway because its present location is within the road right-of-way of the old Mt. Sto. Tomas Road.
The proposed district health center-cum-isolation center will be built within a portion of the 10-hectare property that was ceded by the Department of Agriculture to the local government at the 94-hectare Baguio Dairy Farm.
Dela Peña said the recent downtrend in the Covid-19 cases in the city rendered the proposed expansion of the city’s isolation center no longer necessary as the occupancy rate had dropped to around 32 percent. – PIO release
