2GO together with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) will deploy floating hospitals to accommodate COVID-19 patients, the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-IED) announced on April 4, 2020 - Saturday.
IATF-IED spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles the said that the floating hospital can serve 1,500 patients and another smaller ship is also being set up to serve an additional 300 patients. This is all on top of the 1,000 that can be served in the terminal alone.
DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said that the department was already exploring the feasibility of commissioning other passenger ships and possibly utilizing available Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessels, as ‘floating quarantine hospitals’ which can be deployed and prepositioned in any parts of the country, in case of an uncontrolled outbreak of the virus.