Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center orders COVID-19 tests for personnel

BAGUIO CITY — The Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center will test all its personnel for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) after six medical workers of the hospital contracted the coronavirus disease over the weekend.

As of Sunday (April 26), BGHMC, which is the primary facility tasked to detect and care for COVID-19 patients, has stopped admitting patients while mass testing of its doctors, nurses, and hospital staff is ongoing.

To date, nine Baguio health workers have contracted the disease since the pandemic began, prompting Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Sunday to order tests for all medical workers in all city hospitals.

To date, the number of the city’s infected patients has risen to 29 after a brief lull. Baguio officials have been preparing for a gradual restoration of critical business operations by May but the city’s lockdown has been extended until May 15.

“To break the unceasing transmission of the virus,” all BGHMC medical consultants who have not displayed flu-like symptoms have been asked to submit to the mandatory 14-day quarantine,” according to a BGHMC advisory posted by its information officer Dr. Frederic Untalan.

The consultants have also been asked not to attend to patients at their private clinics or in other hospitals.

/MUF