EFFORTS to deal with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the country got further legs with the University of the Philippines (UP) opening its College of Human Kinetics Gym (CHK)as a step-down isolation facility for cases of the highly contagious respiratory disease.
With COVID-19 still a going concern, with confirmed cases, as of this writing, numbering 12,718, the UP CHK, in partnership with Maynilad and UP ACTasONE, saw it fit to offer its facility in the fight to mitigate the spread of the pandemic.
UP CHK officials said the idea was not hard to buy into, knowing it was for a worthy cause and university conditions permitting to do so.
“We saw the value in it and the significance of serving the UP community. For as long as remote learning is up in UP, we will support this,” said UP CHK dean and UAAP Board of Managing Directors member Francis Diaz.
“There are still no face-to-face classes in the university so we saw it fit that one of the facilities be transformed to an isolation facility,” he added.
The newly repurposed facility, which is the training venue for the Lady Maroons Women’s Basketball Team and UP Pep, is equipped with tents, mattresses, and beddings that will be used by recovering COVID-19 patients and patients awaiting the result of their retest.
It also has shower and toilet amenities, water dispensers, and washing machines, along with hygiene kits.
The step-down isolation facility is the latest initiative by the university, which has seen various stakeholders do their share in various capacities in the COVID-19 fight. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
