Olongapo City Catholic school lends private hotel for isolation of COVID-19 patients

This 5-storey hotel owned by Catholic school Columban Colleges in Olongapo City will be converted into an isolation facility amid the growing cases of the coronavirus disease in the City. (Photo by Joanna Rose Aglibot)

SUBIC, ZAMBALES –– As the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases continued to surge in Olongapo City, a Catholic school there agreed to convert their hotel building into an isolation facility to help contain the local virus transmission.

Fr. Raymann Catindig, Columban Colleges’ president, said the local government would take over the school’s hotel and resorts facility in Barangay Barretto to accommodate the growing number of infected patients.

The 5-storey hotel has 14 rooms with toilets and bathrooms.

This decision, said Catindig, was permitted by Bishop Bartolome Santos of the Diocese of Iba and was their response to the call for the Catholic Church “to provide shelter for COVID-19 positive patients in Olongapo City.”

City Mayor Rolen Paulino Jr. on Sunday said there were already 82 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city, 48 of which are active, 31 recoveries, and three deaths.

Of the 48 active cases, only two patients were admitted to a hospital.

LZB