Batac hospital opens 5 ‘negative pressure isolation rooms’ to keep COVID-19 at bay

LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte––To keep COVID-19 from spreading, the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC) opened five “negative pressure isolation rooms” (NPIRs), the regional Department of Health (DOH) said on Friday, May 13.

DOH regional director Paula Paz Syndiongo said, in a statement, that separate isolation rooms, also known as “airborne infection isolation rooms,” would ensure that immune-compromised patients, newborns, elderly, hospital personnel, and visitors” would be protected amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

These pressure isolation rooms would “create a crucial barrier between highly infectious people and uninfected individuals, especially for patients with diseases that travel through the air, like coronavirus.”

The rooms would also be an isolation facility for patients afflicted with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola virus disease, and suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis.

Syndiongco noted that the NPIRs would “filter and trap and keep potentially harmful particles within the constraints of the room.”

The World Bank funded the newly opened isolation rooms of the hospital as part of its COVID-19 emergency health support program. The project started in October 2021, according to Jhey-ar Mangati, MMMH&MC’s health education and information officer.

DOH Ilocos region is looking forward to having more of this initiative to “complement our fight against infectious diseases.”

In the latest report from DOH Ilocos, the average daily COVID-10 cases logged in the region from May 1 to 7 was three. It noted no percentage change as compared to the previous week.

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