Aerial view of the mega drug abuse treatment facility. FB photograb
CABANATUAN CITY – Some 200 residents, including patients and staff, of the mega drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation center (DATRC) in Fort Ramon Magsaysay have been infected with the coronavirus disease, the local inter-agency task force said Saturday.
Part of the facility is being used as quarantine center for returning overseas Filipinos (ROF).
This prompted the NE–IATF to request the suspension of quarantining of ROFs in the facility, according to its spokesperson Fr. Arnold Abelardo.
“With this urgent sad situation, we at the NE–IATF areasking your good office and DOH (Department of Health) to temporarily cancel the bringing of Covid patients from NCR (National Capital Region) until the health situation and protocol have been cleared and properly investigated,” Abelardo said in a message to the National IATF.
Abelardo stressed that the provincial government led by Gov. Aurelio Umali is supportive of all efforts to fight Covid-19.
“We are worried how a closed facility got infected as NCR sends positive cases at DATRC,” he added.
Abelardo said that the “200 plus cases will create a big challenge for the health protocol” inside facility, the military camp, the province and local hospitals even as most patients at the DATRC came from other provinces.
He described the infection as a “big local facility transmission.”
