{"id":322778,"date":"2020-05-13T06:02:35","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T20:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=322778"},"modified":"2020-05-13T06:02:35","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T20:02:35","slug":"alternate-care-site-nearly-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/alternate-care-site-nearly-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternate care site nearly done"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Jesse V. Sablan, left, president of Helios Engineering Group, and Samuel McPhetres, right, partner at GUMA Architects LLC, present the blueprint of Kanoa Resort\u2019s transformation into an Alternative Care Site. (JUSTINE NAUTA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Alternative Care Site that\u2019s meant to isolate active COVID-19 cases at the Kanoa Resort in Susupe will be completed within the next week and a half, according to the contractor that\u2019s handling the renovation work.<\/p>\n

Jesse V. Sablan, president of Helios Energy Group, which is the contractor behind the renovation work at Kanoa Resort, said the Alternative Care Site, which will take up the entire left side of the hotel lobby, will include a pharmacy storage, a staff room, an entry point for family to check up on how their loved ones are doing, a triage, a \u201cred zone\u201d where all active cases will be placed, a healed\/discharge exit zone, as well as a patient elevator.<\/p>\n

Patrick Guerrero of the Office of the Governor later stated that the Alternative Care Site is set to be finished by May 22.<\/p>\n

The idea is to have a specific place where all COVID-19 cases will be handled outside the main hospital, thus enabling the hospital to handle people who do not have COVID-19. The Alternative Care Site will be converted back into a hotel once the CNMI is able to stamp out the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

According to Sablan, the red zone is for patients who need intensive care and, as soon as they get better, they will be brought up to Kanoa Resort\u2019s other rooms. \u201cWhen they get better, they will be transported up to the second, third, fourth floor, which will be a medical telemetry version of this step down unit from ICU,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Each division of the Alternative Care Site at the lobby will be separated by panels that will serve as dividers. Samuel McPhetres, who is with GUMA Architects LLC that is helping Helios Energy Group in building the Alternative Care Site, said the panels can be taken down should they need more bed space. Also, this will be easier once the site has to be converted back into a hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can take the panels off, break down the doors\u2026reconfigure it to how we need it,\u201d said McPhetres. \u201cBut in three months\u2019 time, if we find we need more individual spaces, we can take these down and put it together with minimal disturbance to the rest of the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea behind the facility is it\u2019s meant to be flexible where it can cater to patients\u2019 doctors, nurses, and staff. Additionally, all 152 rooms of Kanoa Resort will be repurposed into a medical telemetry room with the same features as the red zone. The only difference between the red zone and the hotel rooms is that once a patient is in the hotel rooms, they will have privacy.<\/p>\n

McPhetres stated that they still need to finish setting up sprinklers and getting the power ready for backup generators so that, once the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system is on island, the contractor will be ready to install it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of thought that went into this because this could be your family, could be my family,\u201d said Sablan. \u201cWe\u2019re doing what we can to make them comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Sablan, who is vice president for Corporate Business Development at TanHoldings, which owns the hotel, believes that the CNMI has \u201cflattened the curve\u201d and credits the reduction requirements of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres as carried out by the Governor\u2019s COVID-19 Task Force for this feat. \u201cFlattening the curve\u201d refers to reducing infection rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all believe that that curve has been flattened considerably, but we need to be prepared,\u201d said Alex Sablan.<\/p>\n

He added that just like every jurisdiction in the United States, the CNMI has been prepared to handle any potential COVID-19 breakout. \u201cThere is going to be a timeline that we see out with this current model, but COVID-19 is here until there is a vaccine, until there is a true treatment,\u201d said Alex Sablan.<\/p>\n

To date, the CNMI has a total of 19 COVID-19 cases, with five active cases, 12 recoveries, and two deaths.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 in Guam<\/strong><\/p>\n

One additional COVID-19 case has been reported by the Guam Regional Medical City.<\/p>\n

To date, there have been 152 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Guam, with five deaths and 124 released from isolation. As this is an evolving situation, information is subject to change with little to no notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Alternative Care Site that\u2019s meant to isolate active COVID-19 cases at the Kanoa Resort…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":322811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-322778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-guam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}