MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III will look into the death of a British national who was supposedly turned away by a hospital in Cebu City, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Monday.
Last week, Locsin apologized to the United Kingdom after the British national died in Cebu without receiving urgent medical treatment.
“I was shocked that that would happen. Because what I was told is that he was turned away from one hospital. He was in an ambulance and went to the second branch of that hospital and basically waited from 2pm to 10pm and quietly—without complaining—passed away,” Locsin said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.
“Secretary Duque is gonna look into it. I understand also that they seem to be, no, they do have a problem in Cebu,” he added.
Locsin noted that the hospital which turned away the British national was “really full beyond their capacity.”
“They’re sorry it happened. Apparently, there’s been underreporting. But the one thing about the pandemic is you can underreport on paper but you can’t underreport in the number of beds there are…So they just couldn’t handle it anymore. But still, Secretary Duque is not taking anybody’s word for and he’s gonna look into it,” he said.
He added that Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the country’s response against the virus, would also look into the lockdown being enforced in Cebu City.
“The lockdown is not being well-observed or well-enforced. So, Gen. Galvez—who I think is our savior in this situation— is looking into that situation in order to bring requisite firmness in that city,” Locsin said.
According to the Department of Health’s COVID-19 racker, there are over a total of 3,546 novel coronavirus cases in Cebu City as of June 20, 2020.
Of the number, 3,304 are active cases, 192 patients have recovered while 50 have died.
Cebu City was placed back under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the government’s most stringent quarantine classification, until the end of June.