Subic mega quarantine center launched

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines — A mega treatment and monitoring facility for COVID-19 patients was inaugurated at the former Cubi Hospital complex at this freeport on Wednesday.

The “We Heal As One Center” is in a 12-hectare campus of The Manila Times College of Subic Inc., which includes the former US Naval Hospital.

The facility is an inter-agency project of the Department of Health, Office of Civil Defense, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), Bureau of Quarantine, Department of Information and Communication Technology, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital and Department of the Interior and Local Government.

BCDA president Vince Dizon said the quarantine and treatment center would have a 500-bed capacity from the present 371 aside from an additional 100, which can accommodate patients with severe symptoms.

Dizon said patients from the freeport and Central Luzon and those from Metro Manila could also be accommodated.

SBMA Administrator Wilma Eisma allayed fears of stakeholders that the isolation facility would result in more COVID-19 cases at the freeport, saying health protocols would be strictly enforced.

Meanwhile, in Ilocos region, the Department of Education approved the request of local government units to use 23 schools as isolation facilities if the need arises.

Twenty-one of the schools are in La Union and one each in Pangasinan and Ilocos Sur.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the use of the schools as quarantine facilities was approved on condition that it would be a ”last resort.”

In Albay, the city government of Legazpi opened 24 isolation facilities worth P17 million that were recently turned over by the DPWH.

DPWH-Bicol director Virgilio Eduarte said around 500 isolation facilities are being constructed in the region with the release of P108 million from the quick response fund of the agency.