Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro. Photo from Marikina PIO Facebook
MANILA, Philippines – The local government of Marikina launched on Monday additional quarantine sites outside the Amang Rodriguez Medical Memorial Center (ARMMC) in the city to cater to possible COVID-19 patients.
Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said that the three emergency quarantine facilities would augment the hospital’s capabilities by servicing patients under investigation (PUIs) and those with mild COVID-19 symptoms, thus limiting the chances of patients being asked to seek treatment elsewhere.
“Maliban doon may dagdag tayo na halos isang daan pa, doon sa kabilang bahagi ng compound ng hospital, kulang-kulang 200-bed capacity. Mabuti na marami para hindi i-turn away ang mga pasyente na kailangan magamot,” Teodoro said.
(Aside from that, we would be placing additional 100 [beds], on the other side of the compound of the hospital, around 200-beds. It is a good thing to have more sites so that patients needing treatment would not be turned away.)
“Ang ginagawa natin dito ay expansion ng Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, a DOH [Department of Health] sub-level 3 hospital, so that they could accommodate more, accept more and admit more COVID patients and with COVID-like symptoms sa facility nila,” he added.
(What we are doing here is an expansion of the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, a DOH sub-level 3 hospital, so that they could accommodate more, accept more and admit more COVID patients and with COVID-like symptoms in their facility.)
The Marikina local government said it funded the air-conditioned quarantine facilities, which were constructed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the WTA Architecture and Design Studio.
The 100-bed facility will also be used to isolate individuals showing COVID-19 symptoms and patients that don’t show such symptoms.
Teodoro said that two other quarantine sites would be built at the parking area of the hospital. He also noted that several adjacent cities would also benefit from the construction of the facilities, as the hospital also caters to patients from San Mateo, Antipolo City, and Pasig City.
“I-oopen din naman natin ito sa kanila kasi nakikita naman natin ang health service naman ay hindi naman para lang sa isang bayan kundi para sa lahat,” the mayor said.
(We are also opening this facility for them because we can also see that health service is not just for one town but also for all.)
“Ang kaligtasan ng isang bayan ay kaligtasan na rin ng katabing bayan,” he added. “Ganun namin nakikita itong pandemic na ito, ang virus na ito. We should act as one and we should have one another at this point in time.”
(The safety of a town is also the safety of our neighboring towns. This is how we see fighting this pandemic, this virus. We should act as one and we should have another at this point in time.)
Marikina and the rest of Metro Manila are still under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the high coronavirus infection rates in the region. As of now, the city has 116 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 19 of which have died, with 26 recoveries.
The Department of Health said on Monday that across the country, there are 9,485 patients infected with the coronavirus, with 623 of them dead and 1,315 have recovered.
Worldwide, over 3.51 million individuals have been infected, while at least 247,565 have died from the disease and over 1.12 million have recovered from it.