Surge in Cebu COVID-19 cases drives rush in building quarantine facilities

The old campus of Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu along General Maxilom Avenue in Cebu City is among the three quarantine sites for COVID-19 patients. Work is being rushed so the facility will be ready by next week. —Dale Israel/Inquirer Visayas

CEBU CITY—The surge in COVID-19 cases in Cebu City has pushed city officials to rush the completion of three quarantine facilities.

Two of the facilities would be ready by next week, local officials said.

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said construction of the 200-bed quarantine facility at the North Reclamation Area was ongoing 24 hours a day to meet the target date of completion.

Another quarantine facility that is nearing completion is the old campus of the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu along General Maxilum Avenue which is officially called Bayanihan Center.

The other quarantine facility in Cebu City is one of the new buildings at the Cebu City Medical Center, which has yet to be completed.

When Inquirer visited the construction site at old Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu on Wednesday (April 15), workers were rushing to finish the rooms where patients would stay.

Walls separating cubicles have not been put up. The tarpaulin roofing has been partly installed.

The foreman of the construction site told the Inquirer that the work was hampered by the delay in the delivery of construction materials.

The city officials were rushing the completion of the quarantine facilities after the number of CoVID-19 cases in Cebu City rose to 77. At least 53 of those were in Sitio Zapatera, Barangay Luz which has been on a lockdown since April 12 and where health authorities earlier feared community transmission was taking place.

Labella attributed the rise in the number of cases to targeted “mass testing” for virus carriers around the city.

Three additional cases were recorded in Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan Island, Cebu province.

Data from the Department of Health in Central Visayas showed there were 90 COVID-19 cases in the entire province with 77 of these in Cebu City alone.

At least seven cases were found in Lapu-Lapu City, three in Mandaue City and one each in Talisay City and the towns of Cordova and Consolacion.

Edited by TSB