As COVID-19 situation gets better: City set to close remaining BICs

CEBU, Philippines —  Due to its declining number of COVID-19 cases, Cebu City is set to close down its remaining barangay isolation centers (BICs) and will utilize the New Oasis for Adaptation and a Home (NOAH) Complex at the South Road Properties to house new patients who are asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms.

There are only two BICs that remain open as of yesterday, November 8, where 13 patients are recovering. Once the patients are released, the BICs will be closed down.

The city decided to convert 52 schools into isolation centers – as more and more COVID-19 cases were discovered following mass testing in the early part of the pandemic – to separate the mild and asymptomatic cases from the severe ones.

The schools supplemented the NOAH Complex and the three Bayanihan centers that also housed mild and asymptomatic cases.

As of yesterday, too, the NOAH Complex has 54 active cases. It can accommodate over 300 more patients.

NOAH Complex’ manager and assistant manager, former city councilor Jocelyn Pesquera and Councilor Donaldo Hontiveros, have agreed to the plan of the city’s Emergency Operations Center to bring the new patients to the complex.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu who led the enforcement of quarantine rules in Cebu City in June had opposed the BICs, saying they may have been a source of transmission of the virus as the schools are located very close to communities.

His deputy, retired General Mel Feliciano believed differently and operations of the BICs continued until the number of cases in the city started to decline.

By the time the city flattened the COVID-19 curve in August, only two BICs remained – one in the North District and one in the South District.

Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer at the ECO, also said the DOH Bayanihan Field Center-IEC3 facility is still available to accommodate mild and symptomatic cases.

But a source told The Freeman that the facility may also stop operating soon as there are only a few patients left there. Based on its November 7 update, the Bayanihan-IEC3 only has 12 of its 130 beds occupied.

Last month, operations of the Bayanihan-Sacred Heart School along General Maxilom Avenue was suspended due to the declining number of COVID-19 cases in the city.

Prior to this, the Cebu City Quarantine Center was closed down in early August after two months of operation, reportedly for renovation.

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella had said the renovation would convert the CCQC, which is under the management of the Cebu City Medical Center, into a hospital level facility. Its operations have yet to resume.

CCQC, however, was able to open a dialysis center for COVID-19 patients while the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) turned over a facility for medical health workers as off-site dormitories.

Based on DOH data as of November 7, Cebu City has 161 active cases, albeit EOC’s monitoring showed only 114 active cases, 21 of which are in hospitals.

In the same data, 9,455 of the 10,296 total cases in Cebu City have already recovered from COVID-19. — JMO (FREEMAN)