City to put up isolation center in Aurora Hill

BAGUIO CITY – (16 February 2021) – The city will be putting up a multi-million isolation center cum health center in a 300-square meter area within Bayan Park to serve as an additional isolation facility that will eventually converted into a health center after the Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 pandemic.

Initially, City Administrator Bonifacio dela Pen֮a stated that the funds for the project will come from the P10 million that was provided to the local government by the health department and the P8 million earmarked by the barangay for the put up of its health center.

However, Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong ordered the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) to prepare the required plans for a P25 million structure that will be used to source out the funds from concerned government agencies and lawmakers who want to assist the local government to implement the identified priority development projects for the city.

Earlier, the health department gave the local government until May to use the earmarked funds to put up its isolation center to increase the capacity of its isolation units to cater to the sudden surges in COVID cases caused by the ongoing contact tracing and expanded tracing.

The city administrator claimed that the proposed Aurora Hill isolation center will be a 3-story structure that will be used by the local government as an isolation center but the same will be eventually converted into a district health center for the Aurora Hill district.

According to him, the identification of the area was done by the CBAO in close coordination with the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) which is in charge of the operation of the management of parks located in the different parts of the city.

The mayor claimed that health officers assigned in the Aurora Hill district health center recently informed him of the need for a wider facility to cater to the increasing number of clients for them to be able to comply with the prevailing implementation of the basic health and safety protocols aside from the need to repair the existing structure as the same is already dilapidated.

Dela Pen֮a stipulated that parking will be one of the important features of the proposed isolation center cum health center to ensure that obstructions along the major roads in the area will be prevented and to provide clients with adequate parking spaces when transacting business with the health workers assigned in the aforesaid center.

Baguio City has some 16 district health centers aside from the City Health Services Office located along Teodora Alonzo St. where most of the transactions on health are being conducted.

The local government and the health department entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that paved the way for the downloading of the P10 million funds specifically earmarked for the construction of an additional isolation facilities in the city to cater to the intermittent surges in the number of COVID cases because of the ongoing contact tracing and expanded testing of the members of the city’s vulnerable sectors.

The fund that was downloaded to the city is part of the agency’s budget for the improvement and put up of additional health facilities as part of the strategic measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus in the city. – Dexter A. See