Mega COVID-19 quarantine facility in Calamba opens in September

A mega temporary COVID-19 quarantine facility in Calamba, Laguna is set to begin operations by early September. (Photo by National Task Force Against COVID-19)

MANILA, Philippines — A mega COVID-19 quarantine facility for Region 4-A (Calabarzon) is expected to open by early September in Calamba, Laguna.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, National Action Plan against COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. and Deputy Chief Implementer Secretary Vince Dizon led the inspection of the mega quarantine facility on Thursday.

“As we ramp up our testing capacity, we are also increasing our bed capacity for isolation and quarantine. These two should go hand in hand,” Duque said.

The construction of 553-bed quarantine facility is already 80 percent complete, according to Dizon, who is also the government’s designated testing czar.

Also present during the inspection were Director Eric Ayapana from the Department of Public Works and Highways, Laguna Governor Ramil Hernandez, and Calamba City Mayor Timmy Chipeco.

Asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 patients have been placed in several state-run temporary treatment and quarantine facilities to reserve hospital beds for severe and critical patients.

To date, there are 202,361 confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide, including 133,460 recoveries and 3,137 deaths.

Of the total infections, 91.6% are mild while 6.3% are asymptomatic.

EDV