Marikina turns to reverse isolation

MANILA, Philippines — With the number of active COVID-19 cases in Marikina reaching nearly 1,500, the city government has recalibrated its strategy: people who are found negative for the virus are the ones being isolated from the rest of the population.

Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said yesterday what they are doing now is reverse isolation where members of households who are negative for COVID-19 are separated.

Marikina’s latest cases showed that entire families are getting infected with the virus. Teodoro said they only had 112 active last January and 277 in the first week of March but the number has since ballooned to 1,486 as of yesterday.

“What we are doing right now is we are getting out the individuals who tested negative from the household dahil mas marami na na-iinfect doon sa loob ng pamilya,” he said in an interview over ANC.

They will stay at evacuation centers until other members of their household recover from the virus.

The adjustment is necessary, Teodoro said, as their two quarantine facilities are getting filled with patients.

Converting another building into another isolation facility is not feasible as the city government would still have to get accreditation from the Department of Health, according to Teodoro.

“We we need to be innovative and creative at this point in time so we decided in consultation with our barangay captains to do reverse isolation,” he said.

Around 4,920 or 63.07 percent of the medical frontliners from public and private hospitals as well as clinics in Marikina have been vaccinated against COVID-19, the local chief executive said.

Pasig isolates variant cases

Pasig patients who have or are suspected to be carrying other variants of COVID-19 are being isolated from other patients, Mayor Vico Sotto said yesterday.

“We are just erring on the side of caution,” he said in an interview with “The Chiefs” aired on Cignal TV’s One News/TV5 on Thursday night.

There are at least 1,250 active COVID-19 cases in the Pasig as of yesterday.

Sotto did not say how many of the patients are carrying other variants of the disease.

He said there is a possibility that people infected with the original COVID-19 virus could still get the other variants.

He said the situation in the city is getting worse – the Pasig Children’s Hospital, which was converted into a COVID-19 referral center, only has five of its 135 beds still available.

The city government is also hiring additional health care workers as they are running short on medical frontliners because of the spike in COVID-19 cases.

“It’s really a very serious situation,” Sotto said.