THE Department of Health (DOH) 7’s Accreditation and Licensing Division will visit the Lapu-Lapu City Government’s isolation facility inside the Hoopsdome in Barangay Gun-ob on Monday, March 22, 2021.
A 36-year-old overseas Filipino worker died of a heart attack while he was quarantined there on Friday, March 19.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH 7 spokesperson, said quarantine and isolation facilities need to follow specific standards to ensure the safety of patients.
“Tomorrow, it will be checked by our licensing team,” she said in a text message to SunStar Cebu on Sunday, March 21.
Ramon Castro, who originally hailed from Toledo City, was scheduled to be released after completing the required 14-day quarantine at the isolation facility when he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Castro was set to go back to the Middle East and had to undergo a swab test before he was allowed to travel. He was billeted in one of the hotels in the city while he waited for the test. When Castro tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019, he was transferred to the Hoopsdome for isolation.
Following the incident, Mayor Junard Chan ordered to have the isolation center’s layout expanded and to increase the number of personnel in the isolation area as the Hoopsdome only has one entrance and exit and is guarded by a nurse.
Based on the DOH 7 Memorandum 2020-0270-A, which amended the Department Memorandum 2020-0270 entitled “Guidelines in the Certification of LIGTAS COVID Community Isolation Units,” isolation units must be within two hours travel (accessibility) to a higher level facility capable of receiving suspect, probable and confirmed Covid-19 patients.
Temporary treatment and monitoring facilities must also have separate entrance and exit for patients and health care workers and this is unidirectional flow of foot traffic. (WBS)