The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) opened the South Harbor Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) medical treatment facility on April 21, earlier than expected. PPA fast-tracked the completion of the facility in its bid to boost the medical treatment capacity of the National Capital Region as well as its nearby cities and provinces, which has been lacking due to the increasing number of COVID-19 infections.
PPA General Manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago said the South Harbor medical facility is expected to help address this medical capacity shortage. He said the round-the-clock construction had been ongoing since April 13 which sped-up completion.
“Almost all hospitals, public and private, are already saturated, which makes the early completion of the facility all the more important in order to plug the holes that these hospitals can no longer accommodate,” GM Santiago stressed. The treatment facility is inside Pier 15, set-up at the Eva Macapagal Super Terminal and houses 211 cubicles divided into different levels of infections: mild, advance, and severe. The facility has 4 color zones: green, orange, violet, and blue –where green is for mild symptomatic COVID-19 patients, and blue is for more advanced cases of COVID-19. The facility is also fitted with airtight doors to prevent aerosols containing COVID-19 virus from
spreading, aside from the provision of equipment needed to treat COVID-19 patients. The Department of Health personnel as well as the health and safety personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard will render the necessary medical treatment to patients being brought to the facility while PPA will provide the additional support personnel that will be needed to run it.
“This is one of the many contributions of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), PPA, PCG, and the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) to help the country in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic boosted by the P100 million funding support from the Lopez Group of Companies to complete and operationalize the treatment facility,” GM Santiago said.
With the number of COVID-19 patients continuing to rise, the PPA together with the DOTr and the PCG, began retrofitting the South Harbor passenger terminal building into a COVID-19 medical treatment facility. Several top government officials led by Senator Bong Go, House Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano, Transportation Secretary
Arthur Tugade, Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Presidential Peace Adviser and Chief Implementer of the COVID-19 measures Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Joel Garcia, BCDA president and CEO Vivencio Dizon, and PPA General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago inspected the Terminal. “This will go hand-in-hand with the Bayanihan Quarantine vessel, which has already started to accept Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and returning seafarers,” GM Santiago explained.
The Lopez-funded medical facility is meant to house returning OFWs and seafarers, so they can serve their mandatory 14-day quarantine before returning to their homes. The facility will operate alongside 2 quarantine ships from 2GO, which were setup by 2GO to accommodate the repatriated workers. The PPA has directed all its Port Management Offices (PMO) to install additional hand-washing stations in all PPA ports as an added line of defense against the continuing threat of the deadly virus. PMOs are also ordered to properly impose entry protocols and physical distancing to all people in any port facility to further prevent COVID-19 infection. “The entire DOTr family led by Sec Arthur P Tugade continues to look for ways to help the country in flattening the curve and defeating the dreaded disease. This is DOTr Bayanihan at its finest,” GM Santiago said.
