Solon asks DOH for 24 ventilators for CDO hospitals fighting COVID-19 surge

Cagayan de Oro is a coastal city and the capital of Misamis Oriental in Mindanao. (Image from Google Maps)

MANILA, Philippines — Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez is asking the Department of Health (DOH) to immediately send 24 ventilators to Cagayan de Oro City hospitals in the wake of the surge in COVID-19 cases in the area.

In a letter to DOH Secretary Francisco Duque lll, Rodriguez, who represents the city’s second district, said as of June 20, there was a total of 10,107 cases in Cagayan de Oro.

Rodriguez sent similar letters to Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, the IATF co-chair; Health Undersecretary Abdullah Dumama Jr.; and Director Ma. Soledad Antonio, chief of the DOH Field Implementation and Coordination Team in Visayas and Mindanao.

“The hospitals in the city are still seeing an influx of COVID-19 patients, with some forced to wait in line for a vacancy. The healthcare utilization rate is at 74.56 percent,” Rodriguez said in the letter.

Rodriguez asked for ventilators for the following hospitals:

• Northern Mindanao Medical Center – 10 units
• J. R. Borja General Hospital – 3 units
• Maria Reyna – Xavier University Hospital – 3 units
• Capitol University Medical Center – 2 units
• Cagayan de Oro Polymedic Medical Plaza – 2 units
• Cagayan de Oro Medical Center/Oncology Cancer – 2 units
• Madonna and Child Hospital – 2 units

Rodriguez said the ventilators he requested “can be sourced from the remaining 63 units the DOH has announced were on standby and ready to be deployed to the regions.”

“The DOH has to help our hospitals treat COVID-19 patients especially now that there is a so-called Delta or Indian variant that is more contagious than the UK variant,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez earlier expressed his frustration over the slow and low distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in Mindanao — even saying that he would fault vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. for the deaths of coronavirus patients in his city.

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