KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 16 July) – The city’s first coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) treatment facility will be fully operational by July 20, a health official said.
Dr. Hamir Hechanova, chief of hospital of the Kidapawan City Hospital said the facility will cater suspect, probable, and confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Hechanova said that before they converted the three-story hospital into a COVID-19 treatment facility, it first underwent retrofitting early January this year after it was damaged by three strong earthquakes that hit several areas in North Cotabato in October last year.
The testing machine, which will be placed inside the city health complex, was yet to arrive.
Hechanova said the first floor of the facility will be the laboratory area. Next to it is the City Blood Center.
He told reporters that a brand new refrigerated centrifuge or the blood separator has arrived after a long wait.
Isolation rooms and modern facilities for the treatment of patients were placed on the second and third floors, he said.
“We don’t want to place suspect, probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases in one place. We have to separate each case to prevent complications,” he stressed.
In the meantime, the city will use the Apo Summit Hotel, which was converted as the Kidapawan City Quarantine Center, as an isolation facility for those who had close or direct contact with confirmed but asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.
The facility, which Hechanova also manages, has at least 30 rooms.
“The city government has prepared the facility even if we no longer have COVID-19 patients here,” Mayor Joseph Evangelista earlier said. (Malu Cadeliña-Manar/MindaNews)