THE Commission on Higher Education said 28 state universities and colleges are being used as quarantine facilities for confirmed, suspect, and probable Covid19 patients.

Last March, CHED formed a Public Health Experts Group to ensure that local government units and SUCs will comply with standards in using school facilities as quarantine centers or community isolation units.

Since imposing the enhanced community quarantine, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases required LGUs to sign a memorandum of agreement with the CHED and SUCs if they intend to set up government facilities that could temporarily serve as community isolation unit or quarantine facility.

These quarantine facilities will house patients identified as persons under investigation and persons under monitoring.

The 28 SUCs have been helping fight the Covid19 since March by providing quarantine for some 17,000 individuals.

The use of these facilities has become more critical as locally stranded individuals go home to their provinces and need to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

“As these HEIs open their doors and allow the utilization of the facilities for a very noble cause, it is a strong statement and manifestation of our bayanihan spirit that we are actively joining the fight against this invisible and deadly enemy and we will continue to do so until we contain the same,” said CHED Chairman Prospero De Vera III.

“I laud these SUCs for doing their utmost best to contribute in the effort to contain the spread of the virus. It is my ardent hope that more tertiary education institutions emulate these 28 SUCs in their kindness and selfless service to the nation and its people,” the CHED chief added.