The Department of Public Works and Highways is building additional quarantine or isolation facilities at the Davao airport for arriving air passengers.
In a statement on Sunday, DPWH Secretary Mark A. Villar said that he has instructed DPWH Undersecretary Emil K. Sadain, head of the Task Force to Facilitate Augmentation of Local and National Facilities, to put up more isolation facilities for passengers swabbed for coronavirus disease upon arrival at Davao airport who have to wait for test results.
Undersecretary Sadain in turn reported to Sec. Villar that construction of an additional 400-bed isolation facility is on-going as the city government of Davao implement stringent control measures to ensure that air travelers will not transmit the dreaded virus in the city.
"Without exceptions, health protocols are strictly being observed at the Davao International Airport and all flight passengers who have no 48-72 hour reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or swab test negative result from the time of departure at their point of origins are required to undergo the swab test upon arrival to Davao City to contain the spread of the deadly virus," said Sadain.
Sec. Villar as the isolation czar supports the control measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 in the Davao Region.
On August 20, the DPWH Task Force and Regional Office 11 headed by Director Allan Borromeo put up modified health facility tents with 400 beds at the new Davao Airport as a temporary staying place of passengers including locally stranded individuals until swab results are released. Another isolation and testing facility with 200 beds is located inside the old airport area.
According to DPWH, other on going healthcare facilities for Davao City are being rushed for completion this October, such as the isolation facility in Panacan with a 40-beds capacity, and another dormitory facility for medical frontliners working inside Davao Southern Philippines Medical Center with 32 beds.Attachments area