Resident claims confirmed, suspected COVID-19 cases share bathroom at Dumaguete isolation center

Individuals with pending COVID-19 test results have been made to share facilities with confirmed cases at an isolation facility in Dumaguete City, a resident has alleged.

According to Cedric Castilo’s report on “24 Oras,” Leky Ybanez showed in a video what appeared to be a dirty bathroom and bedroom at the isolation center.

“We’ve been contacted by our barangay officials to sit here in this COVID facility and they expect us to live with other COVID patients who have been confirmed and share one bathroom,” Ybanez said.

Ybanez, his mother, and a relative were brought to the Dumaguete City High School in Barangay Calindagan for being close contacts of his father.

He said his father died on June 3 due to a heart attack after testing positive for the illness. The family is from Barangay Piapi.

According to Ybanez, there was no good bedspace at the facility. There was no division among menb and women.

“This is a shared bathroom, okay, there are other COVID patients here who are sharing the same bathroom. We are definitely gonna get COVID from these other people,”

Ybanez said their condition was better when they were undergoing home quarantine.

GMA News has sought a barangay personnel for comment. However, he said that they were not in charge of maintaining the area.

Meanwhile, the Dumaguete City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said they were responsible for disinfection procedures and not the cleaning of isolation facilities.

The local government also declined to comment.

At present, Ybanez and his family have been moved to a room in a hotel in the city which is accredited by the Dumaguete Inter-Agency Task Force.

He said local officials that have tested positive were also isolated in the hotel. -Joahna Lei Casilao/NB, GMA News