MANILA- The Philippines is converting some government facilities, ships, and hotels into alternative quarantine facilities as hospitals become overwhelmed with the rising number of COVID-19 cases.

The Philippine International Convention Center, World Trade Center, and the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex will be converted into "fully-functional" quarantine facilities, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Tuesday.

The Department of Public Works and Highways was tasked to coordinate with private firms to convert the said facilities, he said.

The Department of Transportation was directed to identify ships that can serve as floating quarantine centers while the Department of Tourism was ordered to identify hotels that could serve as quarantine areas in every region in the country.

Nominated hotels will be assessed by the Bureau of Quarantine for adequacy, Nograles said.

Identified facilities will be further classified so that the government can isolate patients who tested positive for COVID-19 but have mild symptoms, persons under monitoring, and patients under investigation, Nograles said.

LOCAL QUARANTINE SITES

Nograles reminded local government units to finalize the identification of quarantine facilities in the provincial, city, municipal and barangay levels.

Personnel of the Department of Health, and Department of the Interior and Local Government regional offices will man quarantine facilities operated by the national government and local government units.

More people are expected to be tested for COVID-19 after the health department announced that it could now run 1,000 tests a day from the previous daily average of 300.

As of Monday, the Philippines has a total of 1,546 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 78 deaths and 42 recoveries.