MANILA, Philippines — The Mandaluyong City Medical Center will severely restrict patients who can be admitted after 50 of its personnel tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the hospital director said in a statement.
Zaldy Carpeso said Mayor Menchie Abalos had granted the hospital’s request that for the next 30 days, or until May 21, it would accept only patients considered critical or emergency cases to “give time for our personnel to recuperate and further disinfect our facility.”
“The Mandaluyong City Medical Center is one of the many hospitals that cater to numerous patients infected by this disease,” Carpeso said. “In doing so, we cannot totally prevent that quite a number of our dedicated doctors, nurses and civilian employees [will] be infected.”
The hospital lost its head nurse, Manny Pacheco, to COVID-19 on April 8. The 62-year-old Pacheco served as chief nurse for four years, but he had been at the government hospital for more than three decades.
Mandaluyong had 294 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths, according to its latest bulletin on Monday.
—Matthew Reysio-Cruz