Baguio hospitals test own medical workers; Davao prepares laboratory

LAB TRAINING Volunteer scientists and personnel of Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC) train at a laboratory of the University of the Philippines Mindanao in Davao City to prepare for their work at the COVID-19 testing facility of DRMC. —PHOTO COURTESY OF UP MINDANAO

BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — Hospitals in the city have been asked to follow the lead of Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), which stopped taking in patients on Sunday to allow the mass testing of its medical workers.

Over the weekend, three BGHMC doctors, two nurses, two nurse attendants and an encoder contracted the coronavirus while treating infected patients.

On Monday, a midwife was found to have been afflicted in the course of the hospital’s mass testing. BGHMC is the primary Cordillera hospital that has been accredited to test for the virus and to treat new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients.

After the hospital instituted stricter infection control measures and improved the work schedules of its staff, it again started admitting patients on Monday.

“All other operations, such as dialysis and triage will resume but with limitations on strict infection control. Rest assured that the hospital is regularly exercising due diligence in making sure our health-care workers are safe as well as the patients we serve,” said BGHMC.

Most of the infected medical workers were tested not because they displayed flu-like symptoms but because they were among the city’s high-risk people who had direct exposure to COVID-19.

The city accelerated mass testing on Monday, using real-time polymerase chain reaction confirmatory test kits.

Government health workers can conduct 200 tests each day until May 15, according to the city public information office.

In Cagayan Valley, a doctor and three nurses, who survived the virus they contracted from patients, are back on duty, said Dr. Glenn Mathew Baggao, medical director of Cagayan Valley Medical Center.

Safety procedures have been set in place to protect the health workers, Baggao said, citing the protocol that requires team members to undergo briefings two days before their shift.

Cagayan province has not recorded a new case for the last 21 days.

Davao testing

In Tagum City, a COVID-19 diagnostic laboratory to supplement testing at Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) will soon rise at Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC), according to Dr. Lyre Anni Murao, director of the Philippine Genome Center in Mindanao.

In a statement, Murao said the Department of Health (DOH) had already given the go-signal to proceed with the project, which might be operational by June.

Murao, also a professor of virology at the University of the Philippines Mindanao, said the university had been holding talks with local and health officials, and leaders in the private sector since March on the need to augment the testing capacity in the Davao region.

She said P15 million to P16 million was needed to set up the project and an additional P8 million for monthly operation costs.Davao del Norte Gov. Edwin Jubahib, Tagum Mayor Allan Rellon and Samal Island Mayor Al David Uy committed to support the funding needs of the project.

“With Mindanao being so vast and having a large population, it does not make sense to only have SPMC for COVID-19 testing here. Setting up this lab is such a huge task, but we are grateful to be working with [the] DOH, DRMC, the local governments and the private sector to make this happen,” Murao said.

At present, the SPMC serves as the only recognized subnational referral center for the disease in Mindanao.

Once the DOH, through the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, grants the lab accreditation, there will be no need to send swab samples to Manila, said Murao.

“The laboratory can produce results for priority patients, including probable cases, within 24 hours. When fully operational, it can handle 110 tests per day or 550 tests a week,” she said.

—REPORTS FROM VINCENT CABREZA, VILLAMOR VISAYA JR. AND GERMELINA LACORTE