Palace: 50% of public schools in NCR to be used as COVID-19 temporary quarantine facilities

Roque stresses resumption of face-to-face classes set in January 2021

File photo: Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque (Courtesy PCOO/ Screenshot of Aug. 7. Palace press briefing)

 

(Eagle News) — Malacanang said that 50 percent of public schools in Metro Manila will be used as “temporary quarantine facilities” amid the rising COVID-19 cases.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque issued the statement on Tuesday, August 12, as the Palace stressed that there would be no face-to-face classes within the year.

“The Palace confirms that 50% of public school classrooms in the National Capital Region (NCR) will be used as temporary quarantine facilities as negotiated and agreed by both the Department of Education and the Department of Health,” he said in a statement.

“Resumption of face-to-face classes is set in January 2021, if and when a vaccine and /or medicinal drug is expected to be produced,” Roque said.

Russia has claimed on Tuesday that it has developed the world’s first vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against the coronavirus.

President Rodrigo Duterte said that Russia has offered the vaccine to the Philippines. Russia is just completing clinical trials on the vaccines.

Russia’s health ministry said tfinal stage testing involving more than 2,000 people was to start only on Wednesday.

As of 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 12, the DOH reported that the country has reached a total of 143,749 confirmed COVID-19 cases with the addition of 4,444 cases. Active cases have also reached 72,348, most of them (91.3 percent) mild cases.

(with a report from Agence France Presse)