More quarantine facilities are being prepared to be set up in Benguet due to the unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases in the province.
Gov. Melchor Diclas said the provincial government will continue negotiating with the Benguet State University to utilize one of its facilities as an isolation area.
Diclas said BSU’s Gladiola Center is being utilized by nurses of Benguet General Hospital who are quarantined due to their exposure with one of their colleagues who recently tested positive for Covid-19.
The male nurse works at the emergency room and was tested positive of the virus on Aug. 13, prompting the mandatory isolation of other nurses identified as close contacts.
The provincial government is also looking at utilizing gymnasiums located at the Capitol and at the Benguet Sports Complex in Wangal.
“We are also looking at the municipalities to take care of those positive cases from their area like what Tuba did where they let their Covid-19 positive patients quarantine in their identified facility. Hopefully, other municipalities would follow suit because our cases are rising,” he said.
BeGH Chief of Hospital, Dr. Meliarazon Dulay, said the capacity of the hospital is already full prompting them to prioritize Covid-19 positive patients who are symptomatic, have comorbidity, pregnant, newly-given birth, or have recently undergone operation.
“We are already full. We have 34 declared beds and then we admitted almost 41patients,” Dulay said.
She said asymptomatic patients can be brought to other quarantine facilities to recover from the virus infection. As of Aug. 18, there are 69 active cases from Benguet.
Other isolation facilities being used in Benguet include the provincial evacuation center and the Benguet Training Center, which also acts as a triage center and a temporary quarantine facility for locally-stranded individuals and returning overseas Filipino workers. – Ofelia C. Empian
April 26, 2024
