After Cebu, Cimatu to help Bacolod manage rising number of COVID-19 patients
BACOLOD CITY –– After helping Cebu City bring down its coronavirus cases, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu is headed to Bacolod to help the city manage the number of patients that have overwhelmed all its hospitals and medical personnel.
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Senator Christopher “Bong” Go informed him that Cimatu would arrive in the city on Thursday, August 27.
Cimatu will be accompanied by retired General Mel Feliciano and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino.
“We want to assure you that the national government is here to help you. We will support you all the way,” said Dino in a statement.
Leonardia on Tuesday sent an “emergency and urgent appeal” to President Duterte to deploy an augmentation team of 150 nurses, 20 doctors, and 30 medical technologists from the Department of Health (DOH) to Bacolod as an “emergency stop-gap measure” before the city healthcare system bogs down due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The mayor said the recent spike in local transmissions in Bacolod has filled up the 149 COVID-19 beds in the seven hospitals of the city.
“The situation has worsened because many of the medical staff in these hospitals had tested positive for the virus and had to go on quarantine/isolation and they have not yet reported back to work, while several others have resigned or have gone on absent without leave (AWOL). Most of the personnel are nurses,” said Leonardia in a letter to the president.
“An augmentation team can alternate with the staff that are still on duty at these hospitals or fill up the gap for those who are still in on quarantine,” he added.
Since Sunday, Bacolod hospitals have turned down COVID-19 patients or those with symptoms of the virus since they were filled beyond capacity and that there were no more doctors and nurses to take care of new patients.
Leonardia said some patients died in their homes for failing to avail of emergency hospital services.
As of August 24, Bacolod has 749 cases of COVID-19.
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