PhilSports Arena now a COVID-19 quarantine area

Photo by National Task Force COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The conversion of the PhilSports Arena, more popularly known as Ultra, into a mega quarantine facility has been completed, the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 announced Tuesday.

The repurposed sports facility can accommodate 132 COVID-19 positive, mild and asymptomatic cases.

The conversion of PhilSports Arena was completed in five days, making it the 4th “mega quarantine” facility in Metro Manila.

National Task Force (NTF) spokesperson Restituto Padilla underscored the importance of establishing such quarantine areas during the task force’s inspection of the facility today.

“Importante ang buhay ng bawat Pilipino kaya gumagawa tayo ng ganitong klaseng hakbang,” National Task Force (NTF) Spokesperson Restituto Padilla.

(The life of each and every Filipino is important that’s why we are doing this kind of measure.)

Meanwhile, Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto extended his gratitude to the national government for repurposing the sports complex.

“This is a good initiative of the national government.  We can see that every agency and office [is] working together. The local government of Pasig will continue to cooperate and provide support so that operations in this quarantine will be smooth,” he said.

Other facilities that have been converted into isolation sites were the Philippine International Convention Center Forum Halls, World Trade Center, and the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

To date, the Philippines has 6,599 confirmed cases of the infectious respiratory illness, including 654 recoveries and 437 deaths.