Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark A. Villar announced that the Lung Center of the Philippines will have additional rooms for management and treatment of COVID-19 patients by the end of June.
Villar, as the country’s “isolation czar,” said the DPWH Task Force to Facilitate Augmentation of Health Facilities is fast-tracking the construction of five cluster units of modular hospital facilities for moderate to severe and critical cases at the Lung Center compound in Quezon City.
In his report to Villar, DPWH Undersecretary and Task Force Head Emil K. Sadain said three cluster units with 66 rooms are targeted for completion this month, while the remaining two cluster units will be delivered in July.
DPWH will also complete on July a 16-room dormitory equipped with double-decker beds for 32 healthcare workers of the Lung Center, as it hopes to play a pivotal role in the country’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, the department said in a statement.
To ensure the project conforms to DPWH design standards for health facilities, Sadain and Task Force members Director Aristarco M. Doroy and Assistant Director Edgardo C. Garces inspected the project on Saturday.
At present, frame and roofing works for the off-site modular hospitals were already completed, with workers now doing room partitions, flooring, and electrical wiring.
Sadain said the Lung Center project is “extremely significant” since the government-run hospital receives most patients with respiratory conditions.
The management of Lung Center plans to utilize one cluster unit with 22 beds as an additional intensive care unit (ICU), while the four cluster units with 88 beds would be used as a typical hospital facility.