1,000 public schools being used as quarantine facilities

REVERSE ISOLATION A long-unused classroom at Sto. Niño High School in Marikina City has been repurposed into a “reverse isolation” room. As Metro Manila hospitals get swamped with patients, the city government has decided to place uninfected members of virus-hit families in isolation. Across the country, more than 1,000 public schools are now being used as quarantines, according to the Department of Education. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

More than 1,000 public schools in the country are being used as quarantine facilities in a bid to help lower the number of COVID-19 cases, the Department of Education (DepEd) said on Tuesday. Alain Pascua, education undersecretary, said the classrooms and other facilities — such as gyms — of 1,212 public schools were retrofitted to serve as isolation facilities for COVID-19 patients.

Pascua explained that Eastern Visayas had the most schools used as isolation centers with 422 due to the region’s lack of quarantine facilities. In the National Capital Region, only four of 813 public schools were being used as quarantine facilities. Education Secretary Leonor Briones clarified, however, that schools may only be used as a “last resort” for emergency situations, including the health crisis.

—Meg Adonis