TAGBILARAN CITY – In a bid to prevent the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) from threatening the people’s health, Governor Arthur Yap has ordered the strengthening of prevention measures, including the establishment of isolation rooms down to the household level if possible.
“The name of the game is still prevention,” Yap said.
In line with the effort to keep Bohol Covid-19-free, he ordered all 1,109 barangays in the 47 municipalities and this capital city to require every household to allot one isolation room that will be used to separate a family member suffering from influenza-like illness and other symptoms of the viral disease.
Earlier, he told the barangay captains that since not all households had enough space to allot one room as isolation room, every village was required to set up a quarantine area that could accommodate 5 percent of the barangay’s population, as recommended by the Department of Health (DOH).
As of the latest report, there are already 1,168 total barangay isolation centers that have been set up.
Yap said he already asked the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in the province to start monitoring the barangays this week and conduct actual on-the-ground verification of the isolation centers reported established.
The number of isolation centers exceeds the number of barangays in Bohol which but this does not mean that all villages have already complied, he clarified.
Some barangays prepared three to four isolation centers such as those in this city. However, in Tubigon, only five out of more than 34 barangays have complied, while 100 percent compliance has been observed in some towns and all the rest are still at 50-percent compliance.
To brace for spillover from the barangays, the municipalities are also required to prepare isolation centers. Yap said Tagbilaran City and 14 municipalities have already readied 18 municipal isolation centers.
To brace for possible cases from the municipalities, the provincial government has prepared the Capitol Annex Building along J.A. Clarin Street which can accommodate around 60 patients.
Other central isolation centers that the provincial government is preparing are the Bohol Cultural Center which can accommodate 61 patients and the old Tagbilaran Airport which can accommodate 22 patients.
“With this, we will have preliminary 143-bed capacity (facilities) to address isolation centers spill out,” Yap said.
The Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) is also being set up to be the exclusive centralized Covid-19 hospital in Bohol, in consideration of the recommendations of the medical advisers in the province.
It will handle patients who would graduate from moderate acute respiratory infection (MARI) to severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) or further to Covid-19 positive.
Yap said the plan is to convert GCGMH into a 250-bed capacity exclusive Covid-19 hospital. At present, it has 33 beds ready to accommodate SARI and MARI cases.
“Right now, wave 1 of 33 beds is ready. Just in case nga mo-graduate (they will graduate) to higher level of wave 2, Gallares hospital has prepared 70 beds more. For wave 3, additional 100 beds will be readied. And, the final wave will equal to 220 beds,” Yap explained.
Private hospitals are also willing to support the Covid-19 response measures of the province. The ACE Medical Center had committed to allow the use of its 6th floor as additional Covid-19 emergency facility with 40 beds, while Holy Name University Medical Center will allow the use of its 5th floor that has 25 rooms.
Don Emilio Del Valle Memorial Hospital in Ubay also has 30 rooms ready.
The Department of Health-Central Visayas Center for Health Development said the only patient from Bohol who tested positive of the coronavirus disease was the 60-year-old female Chinese tourist, who has recovered from the disease. (PNA)