Facade of the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
National athletes will slowly return back to their old stomping grounds by Jan. 10 as the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) works out a transfer to its facilities, which were used as COVID-19 quarantine sites.
PSC commissioner Ramon Fernandez said they are hopeful Team Philippines can resume training at Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC) and Philsports which are almost empty these days with no admissions reported as of Wednesday.
Ninoy Aquino Stadium (NAS), which has 112 cubicles and had admitted almost 3,000 patients, is now completely vacant as everyone has been either discharged or transferred.
Rizal Memorial Coliseum, which like the NAS is inside RMSC, only has four patients/guests left in its almost 100 cubicles. It had housed 2,800 since the pandemic began.
Philsports Multi-Purpose Arena in Pasig City has three patients/guests out of the 129 beds.
The Rizal Memorial grandstand, meanwhile, is serving as mega-swabbing facility and has catered to almost 85,000 people.
While the training facilities moonlighted as quarantine venues, the PSC, led by chair Butch Ramirez, has helped facilitate “bubble training camps” for Team Philippines as it prepares for next year’s Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam and the Asian Games in China.