The city will be putting up a multi-million isolation center-cum-health center in a 300-square meter area within Bayan Park as an additional isolation facility that will eventually be converted into a health center after the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Initially, City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña stated that the funds for the project will come from the P10 million provided to the city 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 that want to assist the city government to implement the identified priority development projects for the city.
Earlier, the health department gave the city government until May to use the earmarked funds to put up its isolation center to increase the capacity of its isolation units for surges in COVID cases.
The city administrator claimed that the proposed Aurora Hill isolation center will be a 3-story structure to be used by the city 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 in the 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 city government and the health department entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) which led to the downloading of the P10 million funds specifically earmarked for the construction of an additional isolation facility in the city.
This downloaded fund 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. By Dexter A. See