Bulacan converting athlete’s quarters into COVID-19 isolation facility

CITY OF MALOLOS –– Bulacan is using its sports center as an isolation facility for coronavirus disease (COVID-9) patients who are asymptomatic and who suffer mild symptoms, heeding a suggestion made last week by Health Secretary Francisco Duque.

During its Aug. 20 regular session, the Bulacan provincial board approved a memorandum of agreement to be made with Public Works Secretary Mark Villar for the conversion of the dormitory of athletes at the Bulacan Sports Center into a quarantine area.

The provincial board also asked the Department of Public Works and Highways to build a separate dormitory for Bulacan health workers. Medical front liners are temporarily housed in a Bulacan State University building beside the Bulacan Medical Center, where the Bulacan Infection Control Center and the molecular laboratories are located.

Duque led the meeting of the National COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force here on Aug. 15, where he observed that Bulacan needed to increase quarantine facilities and improve and expand its testing capabilities.

Duque also said Bulacan needs to improve its contact tracing methodology. “Early detection of the infection through contact tracing is one of five strategic frameworks [of the campaign to combat the disease)… The 1,172 active cases here [as of Aug. 15] means you should have been able to trace 20,000 people [who may have interacted with infected patients],” he said.

The recovery rate of Bulacan from COVID-19 has improved with 1,141 patients healed as of Friday, Aug. 21. The number is half of the total of 2,317 cases recorded in the province.

LZB