Manila hospital volunteers test negative for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines – Volunteer frontliners of the Manila Infectious Disease Control Center (MIDCC) — who were plucked from different branches of the Sta. Ana Hospital — have all tested negative for COVID-19.

This development, which states that MIDCC’s whole staff have been cleared of the latest coronavirus strain, was confirmed by the Manila Public Information Office (MPIO) on Tuesday night.

“The fight continues for the frontliners of the Manila Infectious Disease Control Center (MIDCC) of the Sta. Ana Hospital after their test results for the coronavirus disease turned out negative,” the MPIO said in Filipino in a Facebook post.

“The whole staff of the MIDCC, who are volunteers from various departments of the Sta. Ana Hospital, went through swab testing to ensure that they are fit to work after tending to suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients,” the post added.

https://www.facebook.com/ManilaPIO/posts/840301083121249

According to the MPIO, MIDCC’s role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is important, as it operates at 33 rooms for patients and is currently helping in the city’s mass testing program by providing at least 30 swab tests per day.

Earlier, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said that there were already 334 confirmed COVID-19 patients in the city.

Manila’s local testing sites meanwhile have accommodated 184 tests on Tuesday, bringing the total of tested patients under the program to 1,178.

The whole of Luzon and a few other areas are still under an ECQ, which will end on April 30, due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases.

As of this writing, the Department of Health has confirmed 5,223 COVID-19 patients — 335 of whom have died and 295 have recovered.

Worldwide, over 1.9 million individuals have been infected, of whom 119,700 have died and 449,472 have recovered.

/atm