The Supreme Court (SC) has set up an emergency care unit (ECU) for its employees who are infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and for those of the Court of Appeals (CA), Sandiganbayan and Court of Tax Appeals (CTA).

The ECU is housed at the SC’s gymnasium and has a 55-bed capacity. It will serve as isolation and quarantine area for employees while awaiting hospital confinement or referral to appropriate quarantine facilities.

The SC’s public information office (PIO) said the setting up of the ECU at the 5^th floor of the SC-CA building on Padre Faura Street in Ermita, Manila was approved by Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo.

Last week, the SC announced that it had partnered with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) for the isolation and quarantine of court employees in the National Capital Region (NCR) and the adjacent provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan and Rizal.

The PRC will manage the facility allotted to court employees with a capacity of 50 persons inside the campus of DLS-CSB.

Just like the DLS-CSB facility, the ECU at the SC compound will accommodate employees on a “first come, first served basis” due to limited capacity.

The PIO said “the ECU project will be managed by the Office of the Administrative Services (OAS), led by Deputy Clerk of Court and Chief Administrative Officer Atty. Maria Carina M. Cunanan, in coordination with the SC Medical and Dental Services (SC-MDS).”

It said the ECU will hire medical personnel who will be under the direct control and supervision of the SC-MDS.

It also said: “No visitors shall be allowed to enter the ECU. All concerns shall be coursed through the OCA (Office of the Court Administrator) and the SC-MDS.”

But it said that “communications through remote means between the patients and their families shall be encouraged, and mental health and psychosocial support services will also be provided in coordination with the appropriate government institutions, if necessary.”

The SC had allowed the grant of financial assistance ranging from P15,000 to P50,000 to trial court judges and personnel who got sick, hospitalized, and died due to COVID-19.

Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez said the financial assistance – approved by Chief Justice Gesmundo with the concurrence of all SC justices -- will be granted to employees affected by COVID-19 “from March 2020 until the current pandemic ends.”

In a circular, Marquez said the P15,000 assistance is for judges and employees who suffered mild to moderate illness; P30,000 for those who had critical illness that required -- among other processes -- invasive ventilation, extracorporeal oxygenation or renal replacement therapy; and P50,000 to those who died due to COVID-19 whether hospitalized or not.

SC records showed that 20 trial court officials and employees, three of them incumbent judges, have died due to COVID-19, while 1,113 officials and personnel had been and are still in various stages of infections as of April 25, 2021.

It was not known immediately how many officials and employees in the SC, CA, CTA and Sandiganbayan have been or are still infected with COVID-19.

The country’s judiciary has about 30,000 officials and employees nationwide. They have been included in the priority list for COVID-19 vaccinations.