Posts highest number of PCR tests conducted in NCR
The Taguig City government will be opening a mega-quarantine facility for confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients to beef up its health service capability.
Mayor Lino Cayetano made the announcement in the “Laging Handa” public briefing Friday (July 17) where he discussed the measures Taguig is implementing to curb the spread of the virus.
“In Taguig, we have five quarantine facilities but we’re working on a mega facility that will be able to house 500 patients. This will be completed in three to four months. This week, we will be able to open its Phase 1,” Cayetano said.
The 500-bed mega quarantine facility is located at the Lakeshore Area in Barangay Lower Bicutan. Another quarantine facility will be opened in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Bgy. Fort Bonifacio, which has 481 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the highest number of confirmed case among the 31 barangays in Taguig.
As of July 17, Taguig has 1,677 COVID-19 positive cases, up by 14 new cases from July 16, including 610 patients who have recovered and 23 deaths, leaving 1,044 active cases.
Of the total COVID-19 cases in Fort Bonifacio, 385 or 80 percent of them are from a construction site in BGC, which the Taguig City government declined to identify.
Cayetano said the city government is hoping that all positive patients at the construction site will recover by next week, saying, “I’ll be happy to report that all of the positive workers in that area will be cleared and will have recovered.”
About 90 percent of the confirmed COVID-19 cases at the construction site are asymptomatic and with mild symptoms, the mayor said.
He added that they expect a surge in recoveries city-wide by Monday (July 20) based on the new guidelines by the Department of Health (DOH) in clearing patients.
“We expect on Monday that we will have a surge of recoveries because after 14 days, when the patients we monitor are not hospitalized or do not get sick, they are considered recovered,” said Cayetano.
It was also revealed during the public briefing that Taguig has the highest number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests conducted in the National Capital Region (NCR). Cayetano said that as of July 16, the Taguig City government has conducted 19,338 PCT tests, equivalent to about 2.4 percent of the city’s total population.
He said Secretary Vince Dizon, National Action Plan Against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer, advised them that by the end of the year, they should have tested 10 percent of the total city population.