The Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF) is planning to implement a one-to-one (1:1) patient-to-room accommodation ratio in a bid to further contain the spread of COVID-19 in the City.
City Administrator Em Ang, executive director and deputy for administration and operations of the EOC-TF, said this in light of the continued decline in the number of cases in Bacolod.
The decrease resulted in the underutilization of at least two isolation facilities in the City, located at Luisa Medel National High School and at Bata Elementary School.
Dr. Anna Maria Laarni Pornan, EOC deputy for medical, said that the utilization rate of the isolation facilities in Bacolod public schools only peaked at 15 percent Tuesday [Nov. 3].
Data from the EOC-TF showed that of 576 beds, only 84 were utilized, leaving 492 beds available, or an 85-percent available bed capacity.
“Meaning, we have a bigger number of facilities reserved, unlike two months ago that we were worried that we might not have enough rooms due to the overwhelming number of people who need to be isolated,” said Councilor Renecito Novero, chair of the Quarantine Centers Action Team.
“Let’s be grateful that up to date, the number of people who need isolation keeps reducing,” Novero added.
According to Ang, the underutilization may result in the eventual reduction of the isolation facilities, but she added that the EOC-TF will make sure that all COVID-19 asymptomatic and mild patients would still be accommodated.
The low utilization rate of isolation facilities would allow the City Government to save resources and allow the deployment of healthcare workers to highly utilized isolation facilities to aid in the shifting rotation of the staff.
Meanwhile, the 40-bed isolation facility at Bacolod City National High School had also discharged its last COVID-19 patient Tuesday [Nov. 2]. (News & photo courtesy of Bacolod City Provincial Information Office)