City schools to host 1,000 beds for PUMs and PUIs

By Emme Rose Santiagudo

The Iloilo City government is preparing classrooms and school buildings that will serve as isolation sites for the increasing number of persons under monitoring (PUMs) and patients under investigation (PUIs) for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

PUIs are persons with travel history in places with local transmission and manifested signs and symptoms of Covid-19.

PUMs are persons with travel history in places with local transmission and are asymptomatic.

The target is to identify isolation sites which can accommodate a maximum of 1,000 bed-capacity, according to Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna, the city’s focal person for Covid-19.

“The city is preparing for a maximum of 1,000-beds. We will be identifying kon diin ang mga nearby schools nga pwede mahimo nga isolation facility,” Fortuna said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Fortuna said that they have identified Iloilo Central Elementary School (ICES) as one of the isolation facilities and has been operating since Monday.

The school has a 50-bed capacity, he added.

Fortuna said they are also considering Mabini Elementary School and the old building of the Sta. Maria Catholic School to serve as isolation facilities.

Only PUIs with mild symptoms and no co-morbidities and selected PUMs will be accommodated in the isolation facilities, he furthered.

“For our PUMs, we will cater to those na indi gid kaya sang ila household na i-isolate, ang mga PUMs na stranded diri and wala ilistaran didto ta man ibutang and mga PUIs na no need na for hospital admission,” Fortuna said.

PUMs who will refuse to undergo the 14-day quarantine will also be relocated to the isolation facilities.

Fortuna said the facilities will be manned by barangay health emergency response teams (BHERTs), nurses and other medical personnel for the strict implementation of the quarantine procedures.

“We will be catering to PUIs and PUMs pero ginaseparate naton ang PUMs naton,wala naton ginaupod sa PUI. Ang PUMs naman naga-observe sila social distancing,” Fortuna explained.

He said that the number of PUMs in the city has started to plateau due to the influx of Ilonggos coming home from Manila.

The number will go down in the coming days as some PUMs have already finished their 14-day quarantine period, Fortuna added.

Meanwhile, Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city government is preparing for the surge of patients following the confirmation of the first positive case in Iloilo City from Mandurriao district.

The mayor said the city is left with no choice but to resort to classrooms as isolation facilities.

“Waay na gid kita lugar nga mabutangan sang aton nga isolation patients, I hope you understand. Kon indi kita magbutang sa eskwelahan, I do not know where we can place them,” he said.

As of March 26, PUIs in the city numbered to 55 while PUMs totaled 2,216.