Quarantine facilities in NCR 61.8% occupied —Villar

Quarantine facilities in the National Capital Region is 61.8% occupied, according to Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, the country's isolation czar, on Tuesday.

During House Committee on Health meeting on the government’s COVID-19 response, Villar said the occupancy rate of the government quarantine facilities nationwide is at 15%.

“The one area with very high occupancy rate is NCR which is at 61.8%,” Villar said.

Due to this, Villar said they will be arranging the fifth batch of facilities that will focus on NCR.

“So we are adding 264 beds to NCR and 188 of these are medical beds to increase the ICU capacity or critical care capacity of the [Department of Health] or our public hospitals,” he said.

Villar said on April 8, the quarantine facility in the Quezon Institute will be operational. This facility will operate as modular hospital, which will help in increasing the intensive care unit (ICU) capacity of the country.

Forty-five days after the opening of the Quezon Institute, Villar said the government will see a “sharp increase” in its ICU capacity.

Over the weekend, the government reimposed enhanced community quarantine in NCR and the adjacent provinces of Laguna, Rizal, Cavite, and Bulacan. 

The strictest form of lockdown was implemented amid the current surge of COVID-19 cases in the country.

On Monday afternoon, the Philippines recorded a record-high 10,016 new cases, increasing the number of active cases to 115,495. —KBK, GMA News