By Jhon Aldrin Casinas
San Juan City now has 73 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with 10 deaths.
In its latest update, the city bared that it also has 125 persons under investigation (PUMs) and 262 persons under monitoring (PUMs) as of 6 p.m. of March 27.
Most of the confirmed cases were recorded in Barangay Greenhills (19) followed by Barangay West Crame (13).
Although it is the smallest city in Metro Manila, the city is one with the most recorded cases of the disease.
Quezon City, the largest city in the metropolis, has the most confirmed cases COVID-19 in the country so far with 104 as of Saturday.
To bolster the city’s fight against the disease, the San Juan Medical Center (SJMC) acquired on Friday two new mechanical ventilators.
With the procurement of the new machines, Mayor Francis Zamora said the city-run hospital now has nine ventilators which will be used by patients experiencing difficulty in breathing, which is one of the symptoms of COVID-19.
“We are currently waiting for the delivery of additional mechanical ventilators that we have already ordered,” he said.
Zamora said the city will also purchase two video assisted laryngoscopes for rapid intubation of patients experiencing difficulty of breathing and requiring assisted ventilation.
To increase the hospital’s capacity, the city government has procured 34 new hospital beds which will be used to create two open isolation wards for COVID-19 positive patients.
“These two wards will be called Papa Charlie wards separated with 14 beds for males and 11 for females. The nine extra beds are reserved for the ER Triage tents,” the city mayor said.
The San Juan City government has recently converted the San Juan City Science High School into a 100-bed COVID-29 overflow facility.
Zamora said the new and unused building of the school will be used for persons under investigation (PUIs) of the city.
It will serve as a “staging area” before a PUI will be admitted at the SJMC once his/her confirmatory test for the disease turns positive.
The creation of the overflow facility is in partnership with the Xavier School, under its “Kalinga Kontra Korona” initiative led by the Alumni Association of Xavier School (AAXS), he said.