) – January 30, 2021 – 12:00am
CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera announced that the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) office will soon transfer to the Bayanihan Field Center at the Sacred Heart School (SHS) on General Maxilom Avenue.
EOC is temporarily holding office across Cebu City Hall.
Garganera, who also sits as EOC deputy chief implementer, said the center will also serve as a billeting area for contact tracers, swabbers and other frontliners.
“They can use it as a place for rest aron mausa,” he said.
Garganera said the center will also be of big help to the EOC for “easier monitoring and prompt action” on COVID-19 reports.
The development came after the contract between the Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas and SHS expired.
Garganera said SHS will let EOC use the building for free for the next six months.
Once the equipment and beds are transferred to other isolation centers, he said, EOC will transfer to the center.
The SHS was the first DOH-7-facilitated isolation center in Cebu City. It was shut down last year due to low utilization after the city “flattened the curve.”
The 48-bed COVID-19 patient care center was built to address the congestion in Cebu hospitals caused by the rising coronavirus cases. It treated mild COVID-19 cases.
Other DOH-run isolation facilities are IC3 in Barangay Mabolo and the Noah (New Normal Oasis for Adaption and A Home) Complex at the South Road Properties.
The 130-bed Bayanihan IC3, which is also a free swab testing site, continues to operate. – KQD (FREEMAN)