CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY –– About 50 workers of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) here are being monitored and advised to go on isolation.
Dr. Jose Chan, NMMC chief, told journalists in a press conference Saturday that the hospital staff were those who attended to Patient 40, who was infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The patient, a 54-year-old man from Lanao del Sur, died Friday night.
Chan added that the man’s wife and daughter, who served as watchers of the patient, were also advised not to get out of the hospital and, instead pursue quarantine inside the facility.
For now, the temporary reduction in the NMMC workforce due to the quarantine of its staff is bearable, Chan said.
But it could strain the hospital’s capacity if there is a surge of COVID patients, he added.
Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno appealed to the public to help NMMC by going to other hospitals for cases that these are capable of handling.
He pointed to the local government-run JR Borja Hospital as an alternative for deliveries and other minor cases./lzb