KIDAPAWAN CITY – The city’s first coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment facility will be fully operational by Monday, July 20, a health executive said.
Dr. Hamir Hechanova, chief of hospital of the Kidapawan City Hospital, said the treatment facility will cater to suspect, probable, and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Hechanova said that before they converted the three-storey hospital into a COVID-19 treatment facility, it first underwent retrofitting early January this year after it incurred damage as a result of three strong earthquakes that hit several areas in the province of North Cotabato in October last year.
He said they were also waiting for the arrival of a COVID-19 testing machine, which will also be placed inside the city health complex.
Hechanova said the first floor of the treatment facility will be the laboratory area, and next to it will be the City Blood Center. He reported to media that a brand new refrigerated centrifuge or the blood separatorhas finally arrived after a long wait.
Isolation rooms and modern facilities for the treatment are placed on the second and third floors, according to the health executive.
“We don’t want to place suspect, probable, and confirmed COVID-19 cases in one place. We have to separate each case to prevent complications,” he stressed.
In the meantime, the city will use the Apo Summit Hotel, which was converted as the Kidapawan City Quarantine Center, as isolation facility for those who had close or direct contact with confirmed COVID-19 patients, but are not manifesting any flu-like symptoms.
The facility, which Hechanova also manages, has more than 30 rooms.
“The city government has prepared the facility even if we no longer have COVID 19 patients here,” Mayor Joseph Evangelista has earlier stated.
Early June this year, an 84-year old male from Barangay Sudapin here, was rushed to the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) for treatment when he manifested shortness of breath, cough, fever, and sore throat. He died four days later after his admission at the SPMC, reports said.