MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Monday said that the health department will look into the death of a British national who passed after he was turned away by a Cebu hospital.
Locsin previously announced that a British national named Barry died of cardiac arrest on June 17 after he was "turned away by Chong Hua Mande, told to go to Chong Hua Fuente where he was made to wait in the ambulance from to 2 to 10 pm."
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British national Barry died yesterday after being turned away by Chong Hua Mandaue, told to go to Chong Hua Fuente where he was made to wait in the ambulance from 2 to 10 pm, he never complained; got cardiac arrest; doctors didn't help. He died. Shame. Abject apologies to UK.
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) June 18, 2020
He also offered apologies to the United Kingdom.
However, on June 19, the foreign affairs secretary tweeted in defense of the hospital to the UK ambassador, saying: "to be fair the hospital Ching Hua—one of the best in the country—says it is filled to the rafters with the infected grossly undercounted by the city government."
To the UK ambassador: to be fair the hospital Ching Hua—one of the best in the country—says it is filled to the rafters with the infected grossly undercounted by the city govt. Why our president put the city in extreme quarantine. And it’s not working. Little or no cooperation. https://t.co/ElyMXIQzzG
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) June 19, 2020
Locsin on Monday told ANC's "Headstart" that Ching Hua hospital is completely beyond its capacity.
"[The hospital is] sorry it happened but apparently there has been underreporting. The one thing about the pandemic is that you can underreport on paper but you can't underreport in the number of beds there are and the harried work day, work night also, of the doctors and medical staff so they just couldn't handle it anymore. But still Health Secretary [Francisco Duque III] isn't taking anybody's word for it and he's gonna look into it," he said.
Locsin added that, to his understanding, the lockdown in Cebu City "is not being well observed or well enforced."
The city reverted to an enhanced community quarantine, the strictest in the country, on June 15 after an alarming rise in its number of COVID-19 cases. It was previously under a more relaxed general community quarantine.
The National Task Force Against COVID-19 this week is set to evaluate Cebu City officials's handling of the pandemic.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque on Saturday announced that the national government is also considering the establishment of a NTF Emergency Operation Center and the appointment of a Visayas deputy implementer to oversee efforts in the region.
Former IATF adviser Tony Leachon last week told ABS-CBN that cases in Cebu City went up because it was placed under GCQ from a modified ECQ based on delayed data.
"If you have around 7,000 cases which are backlogged, how will the IATF make a decision? Their old data cannot be used to determine, especially quarantine intervention or any intervention because its not fresh data. its no different than having a patient in front of you and going off of a data or examination that was from last year," he said in a mix of Filipino and English.