The city continues to gain headway in increasing the number of isolation facilities to meet the needs for a possible surge in Covid-19 cases after the Yuletide season.
City Health Officer Rowena Galpo said the Department of Health committed to the city government P10 million for the putup of an additional isolation faci-lity that can be used even beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said the city government is looking for an area where the planned isolation facility will be put up.
Earlier, Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong accessed from Department of Public Works and Highways Sec. Mark Villar P12M, which was used to rehabilitate and upgrade the city’s central isolation faci-lity at the former Sto. Niño hospital from 233 to a 400-bed capacity facility.
The DPWH-Cordillera also released P13M for the improvement of the city’s isolation facility with the purchase of 500 hospital beds to be used in the different isolation facilities.
The city plans to increase the capa-city of the isolation facilities from its over 600-bed capacity to at least 1,000 by the end of the month in anticipation of a worst-case scenario after the holiday break.
Galpo said the occupancy rate of the city’s isolation units is at 24 percent.
She said that with the increase in the bed capacity of the city’s isolation facilities, the needs in the projected surge in the number of cases during the Yuletide season can be met.
Baguio City continues its massive testing in efforts to identify possible carriers of the virus that causes the Covid-19 so they can be isolated and treated, a strategy to curb the spread of the infection. – PIO release
