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ILOILO CITY––A baby boy was born on Sunday in a COVID-19 isolation facility in Iloilo amid the continued battle against the pandemic.
Health workers delivered a 2.5-kilogram boy at 10:15 a.m. at the isolation facility in Barangay Bacjawan Sur in Concepcion town, about 109 km northeast of Iloilo City.
Concepcion Mayor Raul Banias said two nurses and two midwives supervised by the municipal health officer by phone helped in the delivery at the Concepcion Kontra Covid Isolation Facility.
“Our alert and capable isolation facility nurses, trained and capable, are ready for this situation. Not shirking from a medical emergency, they hastily prepared a makeshift delivery table from a bamboo cot we provided in each isolation room,” said Banias, a physician, in a statement.
“Our staff is happy that the delivery was successful,” he told the INQUIRER in a telephone interview.
The boy’s mother and father, both 22, and working for a construction firm, and their 2-year-old son tested positive for COVID-19 but are asymptomatic.
The mother tested positive on Saturday after undergoing a routine swab test for women in their third trimester of pregnancy.
Her husband and son were brought to the isolation facility after they tested positive for COVID-19.
She went into labor at 7 a.m. Sunday and was supposed to be transferred to a referral district hospital, as protocol mandates.
But Banias said the Sara District Hospital could not accommodate her because many of its staff members are isolated and quarantined because of COVID-19.
The health workers at the isolation facility decided to have the delivery there and converted a bamboo bed into a makeshift delivery table. They also had to don personal protective equipment.
Medicines and other medical supplies also had to be brought in from the town’s birthing clinic.
Banias praised the facility’s nurses, staff, and municipal health office personnel for their efforts.
“Your pizza and ice cream (are) coming. And Jollibee chicken and burger to Nanay,” he said.
The town is among those hit by surges in COVID-19 cases in recent months. But the numbers have dropped to about five daily this week.
As of Sept. 26, the town recorded 928 cases, including 155 active, 760 recoveries, and 13 deaths.
The Department of Health in Western Visayas reported on Sunday 854 new patients, bringing the total cases in the region to 127,127. These include 16,505 active cases, 107,671 recoveries and 2,921 deaths.