R1MC’s 4 doctors, 4 nurses tested positive
SURGICAL WARD CLOSED FOR 2 WEEKS
FOUR doctors and four nurses at the Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) in Dagupan City tested positive of COVID-19.
Dr. Roland Joseph Mejia, R1MC director, said there were initially only four doctors and two nurses infected by the virus on Monday then another two nurses were tested positive on Thursday.
He said all were assigned at the surgical ward. “Maybe a patient lied about his travel history or medical condition and possibly he or she is already a COVID-19 carrier, “ Mejia said.
Mejia said more than 100 hospital staff and their other close contacts in the hospital were administered swab tests and results obtained so far showed no one tested positive at presstime. Mejia said.
The surgical ward will be closed for two weeks and no elective surgery will be done unless it’s an emergency, Mejia announced.
“We don’t know yet when this problem has started but it was discovered only this week,” Mejia said.
All the infected medical staff are in complete isolation.
Meanwhile, aside from the 71 COVID-19 patients confined at the R1MC as of Sept. 18, staff members of the hospital’s epidemiology center are also monitoring persons who are under strict home quarantine.
Mejia admitted he, too, has been undergoing swab tests every two weeks and has already done it for six times and consistently tested negative.
He said he has appealed to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to increase R1MCs allocation to 1,000 sets of test kits per delivery citing Pangasinan’s 3 million population.
He said due to lack of test kits, some patients are referred to a hospital in La Union where results take five days to be released. R1MC releases results within 2 hours.
Mejia said about 600 patients with different illnesses are presently confined at the R1MC and the number of persons undergoing COVID tests daily is averaging at least 50. (PhilStar Wire Service/ECV)
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