Malaya Business Staff
PRIVATE sector and government entities have partnered in beefing up isolation and quarantine facilities to prevent the spread of the disease caused by the coronavirus 2019.
Shipping vessels
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has teamed up with 2Go Shipping to temporarily convert passenger vessels into quarantine ships or returning seafarers and other overseas Filipino workers who are required to undergo 14-day quarantine.
As proposed by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) private passenger ships will be converted into temporary quarantine facilities as authorities expect more repatriates to return to the country.
2GO Shipping has agreed to convert two of their ships into quarantine ships that can serve 1,500 patients and will be operational by next week.
Artemio Tuazon Jr. DOTr officer-in-charge undersecretary for administrative service , said the efforts of the DOTr to reach out to various shipping companies have resulted in more shipping companies expressing their intention to join the project.
Efforts to gather the support of shipping companies for the important project were also supported by PCG Commandant Garcia and Vice Admiral Narciso Vingson Jr.
The Philippine Ports Authority will perform support functions to ensure smooth administrative and logistics operations.
As part of safety protocols to mitigate the spread of the virus, the capacity of each ship will be limited in order to observe proper physical distancing. The ships will also be subjected to inspection by the DOH to ensure their compliance with other health requirements.
Energization
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it will provide full support to the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) plans to convert multi-purpose venues into additional health and medical facilities for the heightened treatment and health monitoring of people infected with COVID-19.
The Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) the World Trade Center in Pasay City and the Ninoy Aquino Stadium at the Rizal Memorial Complex in Manila are among the venues that will be converted as medical facilities.
Meralco will install additional electrical facilities to augment the connection and boost the energization of the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
All three sites were also thoroughly checked.
The company will provide 24/7 monitoring to ensure continuous power while the sites are being utilized as temporary health and medical facilities.
“ Reliable power is critical too and Meralco commits uninterrupted flow of electricity to the temporary structures… We will also take it upon ourselves to assist in relieving these establishments of any additional costs resulting from the government’s mission of accommodating the growing number of COVID-19 patients,” said Ray Espinosa, Meralco president and chief executive officer.
Meralco has allied with other corporate entities to subsidize all of the electricity expenses that the temporary health facilities will incur.
Meralco and the Ayala Group will cover the electricity costs for World Trade Center health facility; the Razon Group and Meralco will chip in for the Ninoy Aquino Stadium; while San Miguel Corp. and Meralco will be sharing for the expenses in the PICC health facility.
Connectivity
PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. has rolled out carrier-grade fiber-powered Smart WiFi to newly-converted COVID-19 healthcare facilities Ninoy Aquino Stadium at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, the PICC Tent and the World Trade Center.
Smart has also installed Wifi connectivity at the La Salle Greenhills campus in Mandaluyong which now houses health workers from nearby hospitals.
These WiFi installations, which have a capacity of 1 gigabyte per second, are the latest in PLDT-Smart’s ongoing efforts to provide communications support to frontline agencies and their personnel such as the departments of health, transportation, public works, the armed forces and police, local governments and non-governmental organizations in different parts of the country.
Speedy construction
The Villar Group said it expects to complete in 10 days the conversion of PICC Forum Halls 1 to 3 into a treatment facility .
The group said it is working with the DPWH and construction firm EEI Corp. on the projectThe PICC Forum Halls is a multi-purpose venue with usable area of about 4,000 square meters. Once converted, it is estimated to cater to the treatment of about 630 COVID-19 patients.
