TUBLAY, Benguet – Benguet continues to improve its isolation facilities in partnership with the health and public works departments with the opening of a 20-bed isolation unit situated at Ambongdolan.
Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap, Gov. Melchor Diclas, Mayor Armando Lauro, Second Benguet Engineering District Office District Engineer Alexander C. Castaneda, DOH-CAR Regional Director Ruby Constantino and other municipal and barangay officials led the ribbon cutting ceremony that signaled the opening of the facility that will cater to confirmed cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) not only in the municipality but also those coming from the different parts of the province.
The aforesaid facility was erected through the P8.1 million funds from the health and the public works department and a P500,000 counterpart from the municipal government which will be used to improve the water system leading to the facility.
The newly constructed isolation unit can be reached via a 1-hour travel from Baguio City and the capital town of La Trinidad passing through the Acop-Kapangan-Kibungan-Bakun-Sinipsip secondary national road.
Aside from the newly opened isolation unit, the health and public works departments were able to complete a 16-bed isolation center within the property of the Benguet General Hospital (BeGH) while another similar isolation facility is being constructed in Itogon town.
Congressman Yap stated that he will continue to make the appropriate representations with the concerned government agencies to prioritize the put up of more isolation centers in the different municipalities to cater to the isolation requirements of confirmed COVID patients to prevent them from crowding in existing isolation units that could compromise the province’s health care system and stress the frontliners.
He appealed to the residents of the province to continue adhering to the prescribed health and safety protocols to prevent them from contracting the deadly virus that could result to the congestion of the province’s health facilities in the future while awaiting the delivery of the vaccines that had been allocated by the National Vaccine Committee for Benguet.
According to him, Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. assured that Benguet will be getting its fair share of the vaccines that will be arriving in the country but the same will be used for the priority list that had been prepared for the purpose such as the health workers directly dealing with COVID patients, uniformed personnel of the police and the armed forces, media people and senior citizens with co-morbidities among others.
The lawmaker said that the province’s additional isolation facility in Itogon will be completed anytime so that it will help in significantly improving the capacity of the province’s isolation units in preparation once there will be another surge in the number of COVID cases in the different parts of Benguet.
He expressed his gratitude to the Tublay municipal officials for providing the land as its counterpart that caused the allocation of the funds by the health and the public works department that paved the way for the put up of the additional unit. By HENT