LUCENA CITY, Philippines – The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) of the provincial-government run Quezon Medical Center (QMC) here will be placed under “total lockdown” for 15 days following the rise in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases among its pregnant patients.
Dr. Belen Garana, head of QMC OB-GYN department, announced in a memorandum dated August 27 that the department will be in “total lockdown” from August 31 to September 14.
“For the past two weeks, we have seen an increase in the number of pregnant patients with COVID-19. Most of them were asymptomatic and were admitted to the non-COVID areas of the department,” Garana said in her memorandum addressed to QMC officials.
The memorandum did not provide figures on the number of infected pregnant patients and how they contracted SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
“Kailangan namin gawin kasi wala na makakapagduty (We have to do this because nobody can now report for duty in the department),” Dr. Rolando Padre, director of QMC, told Inquirer in a text message.
Garana said that two of their doctors were also infected with COVID-19. Three more doctors together with other staff at the OB emergency and delivery rooms have also been exposed to the virus.
During the lockdown period, the department will temporarily stop the admission of new patients but will continue to care for those already confined.
Garana said the OB emergency room will be closed and its delivery room staff will be on skeleton duty but the OB ward will continue to function.
The exposed health workers from the department will submit themselves to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and will be placed under quarantine pending the results of the laboratory test.
The department will also undergo disinfection, UV (ultraviolet) sterilization, and will construct better physical distancing facilities for patients.
Garana hoped that lying-in clinics, rural health units, and other government-run hospitals in the province would take on the patients who would be affected by the lockdown.
“We ask the help of the private hospitals and the obstetrician-gynecologists in the province to admit the indigent patients under their service,” her memorandum stated.
Earlier, Governor Danilo Suarez disclosed that QMC, district hospitals, and all rural health units in the province “are currently overwhelmed with the upsurge in the number of (COVID-19) cases.”
Quezon, which reverted to general community quarantine (GCQ) until August 31, recorded 969 COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, the latest data from the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) showed. The province has 394 active cases as of Thursday. On August 1, the number of active virus carriers was only 154.