Mayor vows to ease backlog in Davao’s cremation services

DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — The city government will set aside at least P12 million to build a crematorium to ease the backlog in cremation services here amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are encountering challenges with the three crematoriums [now operating] because their cremator [furnace] oftentimes break down, or encounter some problems. That is why there are queues in other crematoriums,” said Mayor Sara Duterte.

She said the city would build a crematorium at the back of a chapel at Wireless Cemetery (Roman Catholic cemetery) in Madapo Hills.

The Department of Health, in its latest bulletin, recorded 159 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Davao City, with at least 20 deaths. Duterte said at least four more testing laboratories had been applying to open here to boost the city’s testing capacity and complement the testing being done at Southern Philippines Medical Center.

Davao has 14 isolation areas, which can accommodate 600 patients.

A woman who tested positive for COVID-19 sneaked out of one isolation area on Saturday and had gone missing, Duterte said on Monday.

In Bulacan province, Filipino workers returning from jobs abroad, particularly seafarers, are scheduled to undergo swab tests for the coronavirus on Wednesday at a government treatment and quarantine area at Philippine Arena complex in Bocaue town.Provincial officials last week inspected the facility offered by Iglesia ni Cristo as COVID-19 testing site.

The complex houses isolation rooms and tents, each with 16 testing booths.

—REPORTS FROM ORLANDO DINOY, KARLOS MANLUPIG AND CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE