The Manila South Harbor facility that will serve as temporary quarantine area for COVID-19 positive patients will be commissioned tomorrow (April 21), according to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).
Located inside the 2,000-seat capacity passenger terminal building at Pier 15, the facility will house 211 cubicles distributed in different zones of infections: mild, advance, and severe.
READ: South Harbor’s PTB, Pier 15 berths to convert into quarantine areas
PPA general manager Atty. Jay Daniel Santiago said round-the-clock construction has been ongoing since April 13. “Almost all hospitals, public and private are already saturated, which makes early completion of the facility all the more important in order to plug the holes that these hospitals can no longer accommodate,” he said.
“Once completed and all necessary equipment are set-up, the facility will immediately commence full medical operations,” he added.
Department of Health personnel and health and safety personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) will render treatment to patients while PPA will provide additional support personnel.
Manila South Harbor port operator Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) earlier said the southside berthing facilities at Pier 15 will also accommodate the floating hospital vessels being deployed by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
ATI noted that Pier 15’s southside berths are strategically located near PCG’s national headquarters. The port operator has guaranteed the area’s strict isolation, tight area security, and regular disinfection to ensure the temporary quarantine facility will be totally secluded from general stevedoring operations at Pier 15.
The northside berths of Pier 15 will continue operating as usual, handling international non-containerized cargoes, the port operator said.
ATI units originally located at the cruise terminal, such as those for general stevedoring, billing and collections and the medical office, will be transferred to the South Harbor Operations Center to ensure seamless operations.
Meanwhile, the Operations Division of the Bureau of Customs Port of Manila, which has been holding office at the cruise terminal after a fire hit the bureau in February 2019, is moving to BOC’s headquarters to make sure of unhampered processing and expeditious release of shipments.
