All 22 personnel of the Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital traced to have been in contact with the coronavirus disease (COVID) 2019 patient who died at the hospital late last month were placed under quarantine.
GCGMH medical chief Dr. Mutya Macuno said that medical personnel which included doctors, nurses, medical technologists and radiologic technologists were taken to a hotel on Wednesday night, just a few hours after the patient was confirmed to have contracted the highly contagious disease.
“Gi-trace nato kinsay mi-sugat sa ambulance, kinsay didto sa ER, kinsay ni-attend sa pasyente, all those things…Gisugdan na gabii og panghakot. Derecho na sila og quarantine sa hotel for 14 days,” she said.
The medical frontliners will be allowed to return to work after the 14-day quarantine and if they yield negative results in rapid antibody tests.
So far, all of the health workers were asymptomatic.
According to Macuno, the GCGMH’s workforce would still be able to keep up with the hospital’s workload even without the 22 personnel.
She however admitted that it would be possible for them to face manpower shortage if more personnel are quarantined.
“Simbako kung magtipun-og ni, mao na atong gihisgutan sa pagsugod sa pagpangandam na posibli mo abo tang panahon na manawag g’yud ta og kinsa pay uban na makapuli sa atong staff so mao mag-ampo ta na ma-contain nato ni siya,” she said.
The COVID-19 patient at the GCGMH was an 89-year-old Calape resident and was one of two persons confirmed to have been infected with the disease based on polymerase chain reaction test results released by the Department of Health 7 on Thursday.
He was tested for COVID-19 on May 26 and died of severe myocardial infarction or heart attack on the same day.
The other confirmed COVID-19 patient is a female senior citizen who has been confined at the Ace Medical Center for 10 days due to difficulty in breathing, chest pains and other ailments.
In a statement, the Ace Medical Center said that the woman has already “fully recovered.”