Manila Mega COVID-19 Field Hospital to rise at Rizal Park

The Manila city government broke ground to begin the construction of the Manila Mega COVID-19 Field Hospital at Rizal Park's Burnham Green on Tuesday (April 20).

The new hospital that will cater to mild and moderate cases of COVID-19 will have a 336-bed capacity and is being built on the 2.8-hectare Burnham Green.

Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said they are targeting the opening of the new hospital af

ter two months.

The field hospital is being constructed in a bid to decongest the city's district hospitals of mild and moderate COVID-19 cases so they can better cater to severe and critical cases.

Asymptomatic cases will be directed to the city's various quarantine facilities.

Domagoso also vowed to make the facility available for both residents and non-residents of the city.

“We will approach this inclusively because this is a universal problem. We cannot give up, hindi tayo susuko,” he said in his speech.

The P154-million hospital will be built with modular containers that will feature inter-communication between patients and medical frontliners, internet connection, and will be airconditioned.

Female and male patients and those exhibiting mild and moderate symptoms of COVID-19 will be separated.

Oxygen tank casing will also be on standby in every modular container.

Domagoso said the structure will be scalable and can accommodate up to 100 additional beds if needed.

Around 150 frontline health workers will be deployed to the Manila Mega COVID-19 Field Hospital.

“We can prepare Metro Manila for the next 5 months, in a bad situation, or not so bad, or not so good for the remaining of the year with regard to COVID bed availability for our mild and moderate so that we can help the doctors, nurses, the medical frontliners,” he said.

“We will try to equip them so that they can continue to serve with efficiency and with the help of diagnostic machineries,” he added.

The Manila Mega COVID-19 Field Hospital was inspired from the emergency field hospitals set up in Italy at the height of the global COVID-19 crisis in March 2020.

Also present during the groundbreaking ceremony are National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., NTF Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Secretary Vince Dizon, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Public Works and Highways Undersecretary. Enil Sadain, Health Assistant Secretary Romeo Ong M.D., and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority General Manager Jojo Garcia.