Ilocos Norte hospital seeks help to build makeshift facility amid COVID-19 surge

Ilocos Norte’s biggest public hospital and primary COVID-19 referral center calls on the public for help in building makeshift facilities to expand its isolation and holding areas amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the province. (Photo courtesy of Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center)

LAOAG CITY—The biggest public hospital and primary COVID-19 referral facility in Ilocos Norte has asked the public to help build a makeshift facility to expand its isolation and holding facilities amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the province, according to health officials.

In a statement Tuesday, the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC) in Batac City said it would accept “donations in kind, cash, and construction materials,” to put up a “field hospital on the grounds [of MMMH&MC].”

The hospital said the expanded facility would accommodate cases with pending swab results before they could be admitted or managed accordingly.

MMMH&MC primarily treats moderate, severe, and critical COVID-19 cases in Ilocos Norte.

As of June 5, the hospital has been nearing moderate occupancy rate, with 59 percent of the 86 COVID-19 beds occupied, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Only six of the 28 beds in the hospital’s intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients are vacant, according to DOH.

The hospital has used 10 of its 14 mechanical ventilators to treat admitted COVID-19 patients.

Ilocos Norte has been experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases in the past weeks, with 103 new ones recorded on July 6, the province’s highest single-day tally since last year.

The DOH said Ilocos Norte’s average daily attack rate per 100,000 population is at 8.86 percent, which is considered high.

In a statement on July 5, Ilocos Norte Gov. Matthew Marcos Manotoc said the province’s hospitals, isolation facilities, and frontliners “are being challenged.”

Manotoc said Ilocos Norte had not escalated its quarantine status amid the surge in infections because “our cases are mostly concentrated in certain barangays.”

Manotoc said he had asked local officials and religious leaders “to ensure that there will be no unnecessary gatherings” as the province intensified its COVID-19 response.

Ilocos Norte, now under the least stringent modified general community quarantine, has 4,155 total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, of which at least 805 were active.

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