Senator Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara on Friday proposed the conversion of Covid-19 quarantine and isolation facilities to evacuation centers for families affected by disasters and calamities.
"We want to see the utilization rate of these facilities and I suspect that many of them are no longer being utilized now. We can put them to good use by converting them as evacuation centers for families affected by the typhoons that hit our country several times in a year," said Angara, chairperson of the Committee on Finance.
He suggested conducting an assessment of the need to maintain the quarantine and isolation facilities put up during the peak of the pandemic.
Citing several quarantine and isolation facilities built at the height of the pandemic such as We Heal as One Centers, Ligtas Covid, and Mega Ligtas Covid Centers, he said these were either newly constructed or existing structures repurposed to cater to individuals who contracted Covid-19.
Apart from the fewer reported daily cases, Angara said there are now far fewer people getting seriously ill, primarily as a result of the vaccination of a significant portion of the population.
"These days when people are infected with Covid, they usually have mild or no symptoms at all," he said. "They will get a cold, cough, or fever which will only last for days after taking medicine or resting at home. Hospital admission or isolation in quarantine facilities is no longer needed."
He said the use of newly-built isolation centers will maximize the funds spent for the construction of these facilities.
"Instead of wasting these isolation centers it would be good to use this as evacuation centers when there is a calamity, especially in areas that do not have enough infrastructure for those who lost their homes," he added.
Those who require isolation and have no means to do so at home can go to several hotels that continue to cater to these individuals, he said.
The conversion of isolation centers, he added, will also help in freeing up public schools that are commonly used as evacuation centers.
"Whenever the schools are converted into evacuation centers, classes end up being disrupted for significant periods of time," he said, adding that schools will be spared and the continuous education of students will be ensured.
