The City Government of Navotas on Thursday opened its third community isolation facility (CIF) to shelter residents with suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019.
The city government, in partnership with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), converted 50 40-footer container vans into a 200 bed-capacity isolation facility at the Navotas Centennial Park.
Navotas has two existing CIFs at the Navotas National High School and Navotas Polytechnic College, which can accommodate 210 patients.
Each unit at CIF3 is furnished with a bed, table and chair, toilet and bath, air conditioning unit, and NavoConnect wi-fi.
The facility also has CCTV cameras for easy monitoring of patients and to limit physical visits of medical staff.
According to Mayor Toby Tiangco, the CIF3 will house close contacts of COVID-positive patients who have undergone swab testing.
“The CIF3 will serve as temporary shelter of close contacts who are waiting for their test results. We want them to spend their quarantine in this facility to ensure the safety of their families or those they live with,” he explained.
“We also want to be prepared in case the Department of Education proceeds with its plan to resume face-to-face classes in January next year. Our first two CIFs are educational institutions and we are not sure up to when we can use them as isolation facilities,” he added.
Meanwhile, Rep. John Rey Tiangco expressed his gratitude to the national government for its continued assistance to Navotas.
“On August 8, we recorded 1,760 active cases, our highest number so far. Back then, all of us were neck-deep in work. But because of the steadfast support of our national government–from supplying testing kits to providing isolation facilities–we were able to significantly reduce our COVID cases,” he said.
As of November 5, Navotas has 57 active cases, 149 deaths, and 4,953 recoveries. It has also conducted 37,533 swab tests.
Present during the inauguration were COVID-19 testing czar Sec. Vince Dizon; Department of Public Works and Highways Usec. Roberto Bernardo; Metropolitan Manila Development Authority general manager Jojo Garcia; and Department of Health-National Capital Region Regional Director Dr. Corazon Flores.
