THE City Government of Mati is constructing 17 barangay isolation units (BUI) to prepare for the anticipated surge of Covid-19 cases, according to Mati City Information Office (CIO) on Thursday, May 19, 2022.

These isolation units in Barangays Bobon, Del, Buso, Mamali, and Tamisan are almost complete as of May 20, while the BUI in Tamisan is half-way through.

Construction is still ongoing for the rest of the 17 barangays namely Barangays Badas, Cabuaya, Central, Culian, Dahican, Danao, Dawan, DMM, DSL, Lawigan, Lanca, Libudon, Luban, Macambol, Matiao, Sainz, Sanghai, Tagabakid, Tagbinonga, and Taguibo.

According to CIO officer Ben Tesiorna these locations are mostly remote barangays that are far from the poblacion or downtown area of Mati City.

“We have long been preparing for that (the surge). Even when we were placed under Alert Level 1 and 2, we never stopped preparing our health workers down to the barangays,” Tesiorna told SunStar Davao.

He added that they are anticipating a spike in Covid-19 cases within a month that may be caused by national and local elections last May 9 or the looming arrival of the sub-variant of the coronavirus Omicron variant called BA.2.12.1.

“We will not stop preparing our people and community for yet another kind of virus that may cause pandemic,” Tesiorna said.

As of this month, Mati City has a grand total of 3,944 confirmed cases and 3,821 of these have already recovered while 123 deaths were tallied.