Several classrooms at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City will be turned into isolation facilities for COVID-19 patients.
The Philippine Red Cross announced on April 6 that the classrooms at the Ateneo will serve as the pilot isolation centers for asymptomatic cases.
Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Red Cross, said the facility, which will consist of 32 classrooms at the university’s high school department, will be opened on Thursday, April 8.
The senator said the opening of the facility will relieve pressure on hospitals in the national capital that are already full. “I hope other Catholic schools will follow,” he said.
Gordon said each isolation ward can accommodate up to six patients who will be monitored by nurses and other health personnel.
The Red Cross will be providing showers and portable toilets for the patients if needed. Separate staff will also take care of the patients’ garbage disposal.
Gordon said the Red Cross has so far received 2,000 mattresses, which will be distributed to all the isolation centers that will be opened in Metro Manila schools.
A telemedicine system will also be set up with help from the Philippine Medical Association and the Philippine Nurses Association to properly monitor the health status of the patients to be isolated.
On Thursday, April 7, the Philippines logged 6,414 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country’s total to 819,164.
“The relatively lower number of cases today is due to the low number of samples received by laboratories last April 4, 2021,” said the Department of Health its bulletin.
Of the total cases, 19.4% or 158,701 are active or currently sick.
The Health department also reported 242 new deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 14,059. The number includes the 133 cases which were previously tagged as recoveries and were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
Meanwhile, recoveries are up by 163, raising the total to 646,404.
The Health department reported a positivity rate of 18.2% out of 37,329 tests in its bulletin. These positive cases are added to the tally of confirmed cases only after further validation.
The department explained that the process helps ensure that cases would not be recorded in duplicates, and that all test results had been submitted.
