Police and local government personnel will fetch from their homes those who need to be moved to isolation facilities, Dizon added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 14) — To free up beds in hospitals, the government plans to have a “seamless integration” of COVID-19 patients who can be transferred from medical centers to public quarantine facilities, officials said Tuesday.
Testing czar Vince Dizon said authorities are looking into moving mild and recovering COVID-19 cases from hospital wards to the government’s temporary facilities for quarantine and isolation so severe cases can be prioritized in medical centers.
Isolation czar and Public Works Secretary Mark Villar separately noted the government intends to build more quarantine facilities to further combat the spread of the virus in the country.
“Kunwari meron nang pagaling na nasa ospital na hindi na masyadong mabigat ang nararamdaman, pwede na silang ibaba sa mga Mega Ligtas facilities, We Heal as One centers para ma-free up ang beds sa mga ibang pasyente,” Dizon said in a press briefing.
[Translation: For example, there are recovering patients who are still in hospitals, they can be transferred to the Mega Ligtas facilities, We Heal as One centers to free up hospital beds for more patients.]
The national government over the weekend escorted some 200 COVID-19 patients from Navotas City to the Philippine Arena in Bulacan province after 200 have recently recovered in the facility. It’s a scheme that could work for other localities as a matter of “integration” with local government units and hospitals, Dizon said.
“Sa susunod na araw, habang nagko-coordinate tayo sa ating LGUs, manunundo tayo ng residente ng ating mga cities sa NCR para dalhin sila from the communities at sa ating mga quarantine facilities para maalagan sila ng mabuti, pagalingin sila,” Dizon said.
In an interview on CNN Philippines, Villar bared the additional quarantine facilities are made of movable container vans, with at most 32 individual rooms inside. Each room will have their own aircon and rest room.
[Translation: In the coming days, while we coordinate with LGUs, the government will escort residents from NCR cities to our quarantine facilities in order to take care of them and help them recover.]
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who was also in the briefing, said the government will also establish a patient navigation system, wherein barangay health emergency response teams will help identify suspect or probable cases that can be brought to community isolation units instead of hospitals.
“Nagkakaroon ng congestion sa ospital kasi lahat gusto doon eh,” said Duque. “Ito ang gusto nating baguhin: ang health-seeking behavior ng ating mga kababayan kaya [dapat] matukoy kung saan dapat na facility sila dadalhin.”
[Translation: There’s congestion in hospitals because everybody wants to go there. This is what we want to change: the health-seeking behavior of our Filipinos, so we can easily determine which facility to bring them in.]
“For those who are not sure [if they caught the virus] or who have pending test results, we need to put them in facilities with individual rooms so there’s no danger of contamination,” said Villar.
Duque said he also recently appealed to some hospitals in Metro Manila to increase their bed capacity from 30 percent to 50 percent to make room for more COVID-19 patients amid surge in infections.
As of Tuesday, four major hospitals in Metro Manila have revealed they have already reached full capacity for COVID-19 patients. These are The Medical City in Pasig, the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City, Makati Medical Center, and St. Luke’s Medical Center’s facilities in Quezon City and Global City.
A total of 57,006 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the country as of Monday. At least 1,599 patients have died and 20,371 have recovered from the disease.
Villar added the additional quarantine facilities can be placed near hospitals for frontliners and in other areas where locally stranded individuals or those waiting for their COVID-19 test results can stay.
