No nonemergency surgery in Pangasinan hospital after 4 docs, 2 nurses infected with coronavirus

DAGUPAN CITY—One of the biggest hospitals in the province of Pangasinan suspended nonemergency surgeries after four doctors and two nurses tested positive for SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The surgical department of Region I Medical Center (RIMC) here would accept only emergency surgery for 10 days, essentially closing it for disinfection, according to Dr. Joseph Mejia, hospital chief.

Mejia said the doctors and nurses may have been infected by a patient who tested positive for the virus after undergoing a major surgery.

“Some patients lie in their medical assessment forms, which ask questions about their history of travel or if they have fever, sore throat and other signs of coronavirus infection,” he said.

But he also did not discount the possibility that the patient may have acquired the virus from an infected medical worker.

Some hospital personnel travel outside the province and they may have been infected there, he said.

He has issued a memorandum discouraging hospital employees from traveling outside the province if possible.

Mejia has also requested the Department of Health to increase the hospital’s allocation for test kits as the RIMC caters to about 3 million Pangasinenses.

Edited by TSB