The Bulacan provincial government will temporarily use the new two-story building of the out-patient department (OPD) of the Bulacan Medical Center in Malolos City as internal triage due to the rising cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Governor Daniel Fernando said on Thursday the move is to prevent patients waiting in triage tents outside the BMC hospital.

At present, the BMC is temporarily an exclusive referral facility for Covid-19 and not yet functioning as a full OPD.

At the triage, BMC head Hjordis Marushka Celis said health workers will evaluate whether a patient with symptoms of Covid-19 needs to be confined or placed in a quarantine facility.

“This is to ensure that severe patients do not (get) mix with mild Covid-19 cases,” Celis said in an interview.

She earlier said that BMC’s current 200-bed capacity will be increased by 100 to 200 beds in response to the increasing Covid-19 cases.

Celis said the Department of Health Region 3 (Central Luzon) Health Facility Enhancement Program has spent some PHP40 million on the new OPD upon the request of the provincial government.

Once the Covid-19 cases slightly subside, the new facility will gradually be used as a full-fledged OPD, she added.

“Services provided by an OPD include laboratory tests of urine, stool, blood, electrocardiography or ECG, X-Ray, and CT scan,” Celis said.

As of Tuesday, Provincial Health Office (PHO) reported that the total number of confirmed cases in the province is 54,427.

Of these figures, the PHO said that 49,378 have recovered, 3,929 are active cases and 1120 have died. (PNA)