KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 22 July) – The number of health workers of the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) now on quarantine rose to 102 following their direct exposure to the boy from Lanao del Sur who was admitted at the hospital and found to be positive of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Dr. Helen Yambao, chief of the CRMC, also clarified in a telephone interview Wednesday aired over Ronda FM TeleRadyo 106.1 that the hospital is not shutting down operations but acknowledged that they are not anymore accepting patient admissions except life threatening cases as they still have to conduct disinfection procedures.
On Monday, the chief of the Cotabato City-based government hospital reported that 92 had been placed on a 14-day mandatory quarantine after being exposed to the boy from Malabang, Lanao del Sur who was admitted, and eventually died, at CRMC because of COVID-19 complications.
She said among those under quarantine for their protection and to prevent local transmission were doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, medical technologists, radio technologists, and utility workers.
But she said the number of personnel affected constitutes less than 10 percent of the total number of health staff working at the hospital as they have a total of 1,400 personnel, including those with regular status, casual, and “job order” employees.
“This means there is no truth to reports that the hospital management is planning to shut off its operations. We still have enough personnel to do the tasks. There is no shutdown whatsoever,” said Yambao.
She said that all of their intensive care units (ICUs) – which include the medical ICU, neo-natal ICU, pediatric ICU, surgical ICU, and obstetrics-gynecology ICU – have been undergoing disinfection since Sunday, a day after the three-year-old boy was admitted and died at CRMC.
