IN light of an expected ballooning of COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks due to expanded testing operations, the Baguio City government is scrambling to increase the bed capacity of two of its major isolation facilities.
The Baguio City Community Isolation Unit (BCCIU) at the former Sto. Nin֮o Jesus Medical Center and the isolation facility at the Baguio Teachers’ Camp are currently being upgraded to expand their bed capacities in preparation to receive more asymptomatic, mild, and moderate COVID-19 cases.
City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Peña said that the Sto. Niño facility is also being improved in order to better handle serving as a facility for the recovery of patients nearing the completion of their isolation periods.
The initiative to increase bed capacity and readiness for the two isolation facilities to unclog the COVID-19 wards of public and private hospitals in the city, which have recently hit maximum capacity.
The push comes as the city is expecting to see some 300 additional COVID-19 cases as a result of aggressive, expanded testing in the middle of the month.
Previously in March, a similar push by Baguio Representative Mark Go to expand bed capacity in the city’s premier medical facility of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) was approved by the House Committee on Health.
House Bill 8782, proposed by Go, provides for the expansion of the hospital’s bed capacity to 1,500.
