CRISIS reveals a lot of things. These include how Cebuanos and Cebuano organizations are willing to step up to help the badly affected members of the society.
With their experience with the ongoing Covid-19 Bayanihan Cebu Field Center initiative, entrepreneur Edmun Liu and Dr. Shawn Espina, two of the project volunteers, said there is nothing more effective than a multi-sectoral collaboration between the private sector, the government, and the Church in winning against Covid-19.
For Liu, they have spent time and energy to start building Bayanihan Field Centers, but they hope and pray that these will not be needed.
How did this project come to be? Who are the people behind this initiative? Here are excerpts of SunStar Cebu’s separate interviews with Liu and Espina.
What is the goal of the Covid-19 Bayanihan Cebu Field Center?
Liu: The goal really, in line with the Covid-19 pandemic, was to do whatever we can to be able to save lives. That is really the objective—no other purpose but to really help in saving lives.
Because it is a highly contagious disease, many get infected. And what happens is that everybody goes to the hospitals and the hospitals can no longer accommodate. As much as possible, it was suggested and recommended by health experts of the Department of Health (DOH) and all of the different organizations who are very specialized in these infectious diseases that we’d like to reserve the hospitals for the severe cases.
Who among the Covid-19 patients are the target beneficiaries of the project?
Espina: There are three classifications of Covid-positive patients. Class 1 is asymptomatic but no co-morbidities. These positive patients are qualified for just home quarantine. However, home quarantine has to be strict also. Their rooms should have a separate bathroom, separate room. There should be no elderly, very young or pregnant people. And someone should take care of you. The Class 2A are patients who are asymptomatic but with co-morbidities. The Class 2B are symptomatic but mild. Class 3 are those who already have difficulty breathing.
Class 1 will go to the Barangay Isolation Centers, Class 2 to the field centers such as the Sacred Heart (School-Ateneo de Cebu Bayanihan Center) and Class 3 to the hospitals. Since it took long to complete the centers because this event is unexpected, the patients have already been admitted in the hospitals, especially the symptomatic Class 2. Now, they will also have a hard time transferring because there are unstable patients and the doctors would not agree to their transfer also.
How did the project start?
Liu: It all started with the Jesuits, the Sacred Heart School (SHS)-Ateneo de Cebu, led by its chairman of the board Mario King and the school president Fr. Manny Uy S.J. They offered to DOH 7 “that we have this old Sacred Heart School campus on Gen. Maxilom Ave. (Cebu City). Use it to fill that need for a facility for mild and moderate patients at least to help decongest our hospitals.”
When that happened, DOH 7 Director Jaime Bernadas was very gracious, and so they signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) together with Dr. Sophia Mancao of the DOH, who also is the one manning that center.
Correspondingly, when that happened, Archbishop Jose Palma of the Archdiocese of Cebu, together with Monsignor Joseph Tan, the media liaison officer of the Archdiocese, when they heard of this, they also took it upon themselves to offer the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) Convention Center. Since it is a big facility, they felt that it can also be used for the same purpose. So, DOH, also graciously accepted the offer. So, now we have these two field centers. That’s how it all started.
When was it?
Liu: This idea came about sometime after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was announced in Manila (on March 16, 2020). When it was announced in Manila, of course, everyone was concerned. When our President declared the ECQ in Manila, that’s when things were really mobilized. Immediately, a few days later, the MOA was signed on March 19 and on March 21, Monsignor Tan immediately met with the DOH 7. That’s how fast it has been with only about six weeks (of preparation).
Why was it named “Bayanihan?”
Liu: To put some kind of personality or at least a familiar name for the public to understand, that’s when the idea to come up with a name that is easy for the public to relate to and the name “Bayanihan Cebu” was chosen. It also came about because of the Bayanihan Heal as One law that was passed in Congress.
How is the funding for the project?
Liu: Funding of the field centers is done through the generous efforts of donors and partners. In terms of DOH funding, I have no idea of the exact amount.
Who are the people or organizations that supported the Bayanihan Cebu initiative?
Liu: The Bayanihan Cebu was starting to be formed. And it so happened that the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, thru Secretary Michael Dino, and also the Regional Development Council (RDC) 7, thru its Chairman Kenneth Cobonpue, are batchmates of SHS-Ateneo de Cebu Batch ‘85 and they are alumni of the school and they are also quite active with the Church.
When they heard about it, they said it is a very good idea and said they wanted to support. That was when things started to move forward—with their support and the DOH leading the way, preparing the area. That’s when other groups started coming out to support our project. The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) was one of the early supporters. Of course, the other groups like PLDT (telecommunications company) and also so many of the doctor volunteers such as the University of the Philippines (UP) Medical Alumni Association Society and infectious disease specialist Dr. Bryan Lim, the volunteer architects. They really came along to dedicate themselves to make this happen.
What were the challenges in putting up/constructing the field centers?
Liu: It’s difficult to put up because one of the requirements or the strong recommendations by the UP alumni doctors who volunteer was that we have to make it negative air pressure. The reason for that is as the world began to learn more about the virus, when you have mild to moderate symptom patients that cough there, the particles of the virus float in the air and if you don’t replace the air constantly, there’s a very big risk for the health workers to be infected.
One thing that could help in reducing that risk is to have a system that replaces the air regularly. That is what they call negative air pressure. There’s an air conditioning unit that brings in the air, and there’s a blower that sucks the air out and the air passes through a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter before it is released to the atmosphere (outside the facility).
It was not easy. There were a number of delays. But to think that we can build a facility good for 48 patients in just two weeks, I admire them. I do not know what they did, but they created magic there.
What do these Covid-19 field centers look like inside?
Espina: The center is divided into green, yellow, and red zones. The green one is the safe zone. That’s where the administration, and call rooms of the staff are. But they still have to put on personal protective equipment (PPE). The yellow zone is the transition or neutral area before you enter the red zone. If you enter the green zone, usually the air has positive pressure, usually going outside. No dirty air hangin can go in. In the negative pressure, it’s already dirty, and the air flows in.
One way only. They cannot go back from red, yellow, green zones. It is from green, yellow, to red zones and then out. (For health care workers), you have to go through a shower to be able to return to the green zone.
As for the red zone, that’s where the patients are. There are no divisions of the beds in a chamber. The distance from each other is around two meters.
How about the IEC Convention Center? How many mild Covid-19 patients can it accommodate?
The beauty with the IEC is because we learned from the mistakes we made in the Sacred Heart, we know the details that need to be fixed. In about two weeks from now, it should be ready. The initial capacity is expected at 130 patients.
Espina: What we also did there was to reduce the volume by doing those tunnels. It’s like a plastic greenhouse. It’s negative air pressure inside. The patient is inside the chamber. There are two chambers in Sacred Heart, and there are five in IEC.
How did you coordinate with the City and Provincial Government?
That’s because of OPAV Secretary Michael Dino. When he heard about the plan, he said that was a very good idea and we need to prepare and to decongest the hospitals. He invited different mayors of different cities (in Cebu), Cebu Provincial Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and explained to them, and fortunately they all supported.
What are the existing efforts to ensure that we have enough medical volunteers for the field centers?
Hiring of the medical frontliners for the field centers is done solely by the DOH 7. Bayanihan’s participation is by gathering volunteer nurses, doctors and medical technologists, through Bayanihan Facebook posting.
Once we have the details of these volunteers, we forward all of them to the DOH 7 for assessment and possibly training/hiring.
What would be the doctor and nurse ratio to patients, and what would be their shifting?
Espina: One nurse is to 15 patients and around one doctor per 30 patients. For their shifting, we call it hot and cold. They go on hot for one week and cold for two weeks. Then another shift of one week for green zones. There are three shifts per day, and there will be eight hours per shift. There are the morning, noon and night shifts. If you are assigned to the noon shift, you will be in the noon shift for seven days. And this noon shift is also divided into two four-hour shifts.
When did the SHS-Ateneo de Cebu field center start accepting patients?
Liu: The Covid-19 field center in the Sacred Heart School old campus started accepting patients on the first week of May. I guess it is also timely because the mass testing in barangays is also ongoing and the government might be anticipating that there will be positive cases coming out. They come from all over. I just got word from one of the doctors there that there were a couple of patients that came from Madridejos, Cebu.